BUILDING SIMULATION 2007: The Study on the Simple HVAC Interface of EnergyPlus in Chinese

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. A simple interface of EnergyPlus in Chinese has been developed with the advantages of the structure and object-orientation of Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. The interface of beta version can basically input the data required by EnergyPlus and then run the simulation with the engine of EnergyPlus. The new interface has a lot of merits, including straightforwardness and practicality, reliability and universality, full-function and easy to use, which will make more Chinese acquaint with EnergyPlus, but it is still not perfect for some bugs and incomplete HVAC system.