English

Several older buildings have been found to violate the building code requirements with respect to health and safety of occupants. In order to ensure compliance, building managers and inspectors require a thorough knowledge of code documents and expertise to assess the seriousness of violations. The present study aims at developing a computer tool integrating hyperlext and knowledge-based system techniques to facilitate code compliance checking and provide access to case studies of problem scenarios.

The methodology for validation of Building Energy Simulation Programs developed within the CEC concerted action PASSYS by the Model Validation and Development subgroup was presented at the IBPSA conference "Building Simulation '91" (Jensen and van de Perre 1991, Palomo et al 1991). Part of this validation methodology is a methodology for Empirical Whole Model Validation. Several case studies using this methodology have now been carried out. One of these case studies implies the investigation of a data set obtained in a PASSYS test cell with the PASSYS Reference Wall.

In view of the emerging radiant cooling technologies in the European market, a dynamic building thermal analysis program ACCURACY is enhanced to be able to do cooling-load calculations and annual energy analysis for rooms with cooled ceiling climate system. The program was validated against the experimental investigation of the dynamic response of a test room to step heating and step cooling. Specifically, the validated program is used to perform a simulation of the combination of evaporative cooling with cooled ceiling technique for office building cooling purpose.

BC Hydro and their consultant have devised a method for aggregating hourly results from DOE2 computer energy models to simulate sector-wide impacts of commercial deman-side management (DSM) programs. This process assists in the analysis of DSM program impacts on projected utility system load profiles. With this process, BC Hydro can estimate how DSM programs may influence load shape changes and specify programs which best benefit British Columbia.

There is increasing concern and awareness of the contribution of the built environment to global environmental problems such as the depletion of the ozone layer, large-scale soil erosion and deposition, the generation of greenhouse gases, atmospheric hygiene and surface water quality. Me dispersion of refrigerant gases from air conditioning plant, urban stormwater run-off, the energy requirements of space heating and lighting, and waste management and disposal are all significant issues in the impact of buildings on the global environment.

This contribution contains the description of a design and evaluation system which is formulated for the early phases in the building design process. These phases include the conceptual and the preliminary design steps. The design system is based on the idea that the evaluation should be performed on the same kind of data throughout the design process. That means that as the decisions about a number of attributes of the design are not yet taken, the system automatically provides the default values for those attributes.

Developed in this study is the computer simulation program which can predict the temperature and humidity variation in multiroom of a residence, especially under variable opening conditions such as doorway open or close according to inhabitants behaviors. In the multizone infiltration calculation, the special process is devised to make the computation stable, never failing to converge. In the humidity calculation, two parameters related to the absorption and desorption of the surface finishing of a wall are, also, presented.

Computer-based simulation methods offer a powerful and flerible tool for building energy analysis. This paper presents a research study on the thermal and energy perfomance of commercial buildings in Hong Kong using computer modelling techniques on a microcorrputer-based platform. A database of energy simulation results has been generated using a personal computer (PC) version of the DOE-2. ID building energy simulation programme with a generic base case model building and the weather files developed for Hong Kong.

Weather data at thousands of stations throughout the world are compiled for air-conditioning load calculation using a personal computer. Several selected sources of weather data are introduced. Major sources among them are the publication by the British Meteorological Office and the magnetic tape compiled by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Since solar radiation is not included in the major sources, it is supplemented from the other sources. Consequently, two files named BMO and JMA are compiled. A computer program for calling the designated station from the files is developed.

Computer simulations play an important role in programs being conducted by electric utility companies in the United States to reduce customers' demand for electricity. These utility program are referred to as demandside management (DSM) programs and are based on the premise* that energy efficiency can be a cost-effective source of new electricity supply.