How to sell BPS
Templates for quotations
These quotation templates are intentionally comprehensive and are designed to be tailored by the user to the specific project and national requirements. Content that is not relevant can and should be removed, which makes careful review and editing before use essential. The templates include detailed explanatory sections aimed at helping clients understand the applied simulation methods, the results generated, and the differences compared to alternative approaches. This ensures transparency and supports informed decision-making when commissioning simulation services.
Marketing material
The House-of-messages
A House of Messages is a structured communication and positioning framework that defines how the engineering firm presents its core value, services, and expertise to clients and partners. It ensures that key strategic messages remain consistent across all communication channels.
The template should only be adapted if the fundamental positioning of the company changes or if new, permanently offered service areas are added. Minor linguistic adjustments for specific audiences are acceptable, but the core messages, service clusters, and value statements should remain stable.
The House of Messages should guide website content, proposals, presentations, and customer interactions. Consistency is essential — avoiding spontaneous deviations from the defined messages helps maintain credibility, strengthens the perception of technical competence, and supports a clear market identity, which is particularly important for a simulation-focused engineering firm.
Case studies
EQUA enables simulation users to easily turn their project experience into a structured case study. By filling out a simple online form, largely based on quick inputs and checkbox selections, users provide key project information with minimal effort. From this, EQUA creates a concise, ready to use use case summary that is shared back with the user.
The goal is to make real world applications of simulation more visible and accessible. Contributors benefit by showcasing their work, communicating their expertise, and gaining useful material for client communication. The case studies target both simulation professionals such as engineers, consultants, researchers, and decision makers, and their clients such as building owners, developers, and architects who value clear, non technical insights into the impact of simulation. Users can optionally choose to publish their case studies on the EQUA website to further increase visibility.
IDA ICE project reporting (ENG)
IDA ICE Projekt-Reporting (DE)
Videos
Images
Scientific references
The “OptiPower” study analyses the degree of oversizing in heating and cooling systems across residential and administrative buildings in Switzerland, showing that installed capacities are often significantly larger than actual measured requirements (e.g., +40 % in multifamily homes and +100 % to +300 % in office buildings) and recommending methods to reduce unnecessary oversizing. See the full final report here: OptiPower, Bundesamt für Energie BFE, 2023
The MA 20 “Heizlast optimieren” study examines strategies to avoid oversizing of heating systems, with a focus on heat pumps, highlighting how conventional norm-based design practices can lead to unnecessarily large installations and suggesting more demand-oriented planning approaches to improve efficiency and reduce costs. See the full final report here: Heizlast optimieren, Energieplanung der Stadt Wien, 2021
The final report of Gutachten zum GEG und zur EPBD, commissioned by the Federal Office for Energy Efficiency (BfEE), concludes that simulation-based approaches can be useful for more realistic building energy performance assessment under German regulatory conditions (GEG and EPBD framework). The study suggests a gradual shift toward location-specific and higher-resolution modelling methods as a future development option. The full report is available here: Gutachten zum GEG und zur EPBD, BfEE, 2025
The paper “On the Impact of Typical Model Simplifications” analyses the effects of simplified building simulation approaches as used in standards such as VDI 2078, showing that these methods (e.g., reduced thermal mass models, constant heat transfer coefficients, and simplified radiation models) can lead to significant deviations in heating/cooling loads and operative temperatures compared to detailed dynamic simulations, potentially resulting in oversizing, inaccurate comfort assessment, and suboptimal system design; it therefore highlights the need for more advanced, physics-based models (e.g., equation-based simulation) in planning practice. The full paper is available here:
Help for project management
How to estimate project hours
How to get correct input parameters
In this section you will find example files that can be used as templates for requesting relevant input data from clients. The example files are intended to support complete and quality-assured collection of input data required for BPS.
How to report results
Here you will find example reports and additional guidance on how to present simulation results effectively. For technical details on how results are generated and handled in IDA ICE, please refer to the section Results.
Standardised Swiss simulation reports
Three example reports illustrating compliance verification using building performance simulation methods, developed in a research project supported by the Swiss Bundesamt für Energie (BFE). The reports show how BPS results can be documented for regulatory purposes. View all three example reports here: Beispielberichte für SIA 180:2024 C.1, SIA 380/2 bzw. SIA 180 C.2 und SIA 380/2:2022