Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
OpenStudio is really a bunch of tools to make BEM with EnergyPlus easier; OpenStudio provides GUI access to a building energy model whose primary end is an EnergyPlus model, simulation, and data. Therefore it follows that a solid understanding of EnergyPlus is pretty essential. Most of the OpenStudio model objects are based on EnergyPlus objects, and the full documentation of these things is contained in the engineering reference of the latter.
That said, I do know that the training and education references you cite in your question have a profound knowledge of BOTH EnergyPlus and OpenStudio, and how the one influences the other. I would say that if you come to any of these classes with a solid background in the building physics behind all of these simulation tools, you could get all you need from an intro to BEM through OpenStudio -- with the understanding that a deep dive into EnergyPlus is inevitable, even if self-directed.
