EnergyPlus

Modelling and simulation of energy consumption in Information Technology (IT) building on the Rockhampton campus of Central Queensland University, Australia is presented. Design Builder, commercially available software, was used for the prediction of energy consumption. All the possible sources and uses of energy in building were accounted in the modelling and simulation. The operation of the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system and the lighting energy consumption of the whole building has been studied in detailed.

EnergyPlus is a new building energy simulation program supported by American DOE. Based on the most popular features and capabilities of BLAST and DOE-2, it is rimarily a simulation engine without good interface. There’s an original interface called IDF editor supported by EnergyPlus, and users must input the simulation data with complex lists while using it. The boring inputting and all-English interface make the energy simulation so inconvenience that keep lots of new users away from the software although it has a precise and steady engine, especially the local users in China.

This paper describes a regression analysis performed over parameters related to two commercial building types and three weather files of Brazilian cities. A random sampling technique was applied to reduce the number of simulation runs needed in the parametric analysis. Equations to estimate the electric energy consumption as a function of building parameters were obtained.

An energy management system (EMS) is a dedicated computer that can be programmed to control all of a building’s energy-related systems, including heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water, interior lighting, exterior lighting, on-site power generation, and mechanized systems for shading devices, window actuators, and double facade elements. Recently a new module for simulating an EMS was added to the EnergyPlus whole-building energy simulation program.

This paper presents the development of a computer model of an academic building using the EnergyPlus program and its calibration with monitored data. The new Concordia Sciences Building (CSB), located in Montreal, has a total floor area of 32,000 m2. The size and the complexity of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and heat recovery systems make the modeling process a challenge and an excellent opportunity to evaluate the capabilities and features of EnergyPlus in this particular context.