Earth Sheltered Buildings & Energy Modeling

Since Appendix G requires the same wall area (above and below grade) in the baseline and proposed you will need to claim any savings as an exceptional calculation. Model the Proposed and Baseline with the earth berming and then model the baseline without it to determine the savings associated with it (or model them both without it and then add it to the Proposed). You will need to establish and make the case for a reasonable baseline (standard industry practice in the project location) and show how you have calculated the savings. Calculating the savings should be pretty straight forward in any modeling software by changing some of the wall area from below to above grade parameters.