Reflections About the Use of the Tool S3E for the Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Level in Commercial Buildings in Brazil

Computational simulation is widely used for the evaluation of buildings energy efficiency levels, but software's high level of complexity makes this process costly both in financial and in time-consuming terms. Thus, simplified simulation interfaces and tools have the potential to make the process more accessible to the actors in the construction field, presenting faster results than detailed simulations - becoming a research field that is worth investigating. This article aims to investigate the advances of the Brazilian simplified simulation tool, S3E, developed by the Laboratory of Energy Efficiency in Buildings (LabEEE) of the Federal University of Santa Catarina. It intends to analyze its potential to become an official tool to obtain the energy certification according to the Brazilian Labeling RTQ-C. A review of studies about this interface was made, comparing S3E with interfaces of same concept, as CE3 and CE3X from Spain and Atmospheres, developed in the USA followed by a practical utilization of the tool. From the analysis and comparison of data, it was noticed that the Brazilian interface presented important improvements after the publication of the related studies analyzed in this article, that have the potential to maximize its precision; and that the Spanish and American tools have characteristics that may indicate a development path for S3E. The results obtained in this study points out to research opportunities related to the development of the Brazilian tool for its use regarding the Brazilian RTQ-C Labeling Program, and presents S3E main updates, helping architects, engineers and students in its better comprehension.