One of the exciting recent entrants into the building design and analysis software marketplace is London/New York-based startup Sefaira. Its software targets the early design stages during which critical decisions about building form, mass, and envelope—which deeply impact energy performance—are made. Sefaira uses simple interfaces, interoperability with existing design tools, and cloud-based execution to make energy analysis accessible to architects and engineers to inform these high-leverage design decisions.

Originally using simplified energy calculations, Sefaira has recently transitioned to using advanced energy simulation using EnergyPlus™. Last January, the company launched Sefaira Systems, a web tool that allows engineers to calculate heating and cooling loads and to select and size HVAC systems using early-stage architectural drawings. Two weeks ago, it completed and released the integration of EnergyPlus into its flagship Real-Time Analysis plug-ins. The plug-ins continually and transparently evaluate the design’s energy performance in the background, giving the designer instant feedback on her decisions and changes.

“Sefaira plug-ins provide design practitioners with rapid energy results to inform design decisions. We are delighted to bring the credibility and power of EnergyPlus-based analysis to our users,” says Sefaira Senior Vice President Hugh McEvoy.

Sefaira’s users are eagerly leveraging this new capability. "We use cloud-based EnergyPlus models to conduct rapid early-stage analysis to better inform performance-driven design decisions. This allows us to work more closely with our clients and support them better,” says Christian Agulles, managing principal at PAE. “Our engineers know the power of EnergyPlus, and we are excited that Sefaira has unleashed this power. Making EnergyPlus accessible to a much larger group of design professionals could be transformational for our industry.”

Sefaira demonstrated this new capability at this week’s Greenbuild Conference in Washington, D.C. The company also gave a live preview of a new collaboration platform that allows architects working with the Sefaira Architecture plug-ins and engineers working with Sefaira Systems to share and synchronize data in real time. “Design collaboration used to mean printed documents or PDFs,” says Sefaira CEO Mads Jensen. “This is what it is going to mean now.”