Use of simulation tools for managing buildings energy demand

There are several ways to attempt to model a building and its heat gains from external sources as well as internal ones in order to evaluate a proper operation and also audit retrofits actions. These models apply various techniques varying from simple regression to more physically grounded models. A frequent hypothesis for all these models is that the input variables should be based on realistic data when they are available, otherwise the evaluation of energy consumption might be highly under or over estimated. In this paper, the use of Energy Plus as an energy consumption auditing and predicting tool is tested using as a case study the Administration Building of the University of São Paulo. The building energy consumption profiles are collected as well as the campus meteorological data. A sensitivity analysis for the simulated building model on Energy Plus is done to evaluate the influence of several parameters such as the building profile occupation.