Developing a new generation building simulation tool in the United States.

In 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began planning for a new generation of building simulation tools. As part of this planning activity, DOE created an inventory of DOE-sponsored tools in early 1996. By mid-1996, this work had evolved into a web-based directory with information on 50 software tools. Today, the directory contains information on more than 125 tools from around the world. To inform the simulation tool planning efforts, DOE sponsored workshops in August 1995 and June 1996, inviting energy simulation developers and users.

Two new software gems.

                  

An evaluation exercise of a multizone air flow model.

In the IEA-ECBCS Annex 23 'Multizone Air Flow Modelling,' a sensitivity analysis procedure, that included both the Monte Carlo and Fractional Factorial analyses, was defined to evaluate COMVEN, a multizone air flow code. This procedure is here applied to evaluate COMVEN, when the simulation of the ventilation of a detached house is performed for the case of ventilation driven mainly by stack effect.

Air, contaminant and heat transport models: integration and application.

Comfort evaluations cover air quality, thermal, visual and acoustic comfort. Today, only few computer programs allow for the integrated evaluation of several or all relevant parameters. Heat transport, ventilation as well as lighting in a room are influenced by each other. Therefore they should be integrally modelled. As a part of the IEA-ECBCS Annex 23 'Multizone Airflow Modelling', such a coupling has been realised by integrating the air flow and contaminant transport simulation code of CoMIS into the building and systems simulation code TRNSYS.

Modelling people.

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