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Auxiliary Programs

1. Field USERH User specified ground surface heat transfer coeff This field supplies the value of the heat transfer coefficient if USPHflag is TRUE W m K The BoundConds object is shown below BoundConds A1 field EVTR Is surface evapotranspiration modeled Ntype choice key TRUE key FALSE A2 Mfield FIXBC is the lower boundary at a fixed temperature type choice key TRUE key FALSE note FALSE selects the zero flux lower boundary condition N1 field TDEEPin note User input lower boundary temperature if FIXBC is TRUE units C note Blank for FIXBC FALSE or note to use the calculated 1 D deep ground temperature A3 field USRHflag Is the ground surface h specified by the user type choice key TRUE key FALSE N2 field USERH User specified ground surface heat transfer coeff units W m2 K note Used only if USRHflag is TRUE BldgProps or GroundHeat Transfer Slab BldgProps Object This object provides information about the building and its operating conditions Field IYRS Number of years to iterate This field specifies the number of years to iterate This means that the simulation comes to an either an annual steady periodic condition by converging to a tolerance see ConvTol field or it runs for this number of years A ten year maximum is usually sufficient It is important to note that the ground heat transfer behavior will change during the first several years of operating a ground contact structure It takes sev
2. Description of the Objects in the BasementGH T idd These objects also appear in the main Energy IDD file with the prefix GroundHeat Transfer Basement SimParameters or GroundHeat Transfer Basement SimParameters Object Field F Multiplier for the ADI solution This field specifies an alternating direction iteration scheme multiplier It should normally be set to 0 1 It can be increased if the soil conductivity is high Field IYRS Maximum number of yearly iterations This specifies the maximum number of years the simulation will be allowed to run If convergence is reached the simulation will not run this long It can be used to stop simulation before quasi steady convergence state is reached MatlProps or GroundHeatTransfer Basement MatlProps Object Field NMAT Number of materials in this domain This field specifies the number of materials whose properties are going to be specified The order of the materials is not adjustable so six materials need to be specified For the EnergyPlus basement application only the foundation wall floor slab soil and gravel are used Field Density for Foundation Wall This field is the density kg m3 of the foundation wall Typical value is 2243 Field Density for Floor Slab This field is the density kg m3 of the floor slab Typical value is 2243 Field Density for Ceiling This field is the density kg m3 of the ceiling Typical value is 311 Field Density for Soil This field is the d
3. EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 2 Auxiliary Programs ExpandObjects si rre eene be om e eA AG SUE eR R RU E oo eb AO EE eu S 131 Introduction a ncs s AVADA AGRO deux RR Ae ce dum XN Y Y eg 131 HVAC Template Objects Processed 132 Ground Heat Transfer Objects Processed 0 000002 eee ee 132 Building Surface Objects Processed 22e 133 ESVPLOE 4 4 5 ub I V E SUE wee oda E Ee ae ae A UE E A ad 133 convert ESOMTR G ogre ech at ey ome eS DADE A ES UU eene de rame 134 CalcSoilSurt Temp Program 2 03 m i E our tun RR ES ASA ALIS AUI y Y Yo 135 Running the Program oia ee Ron Ebo SO a tw UR DEOS RU GAS ee d od 135 Programa Inputs germenen t al okt oot he Race ER qe EE eee E e dde as 136 Program Outputs ier 04 XA ee io ee AS aa ae ae ed 137 HVAC Performance Curve Fit To0l ee 139 Introd cbiOB tar Gate QURE ee a qu A aie Taner ee A cd du 139 inu eee ee es AS ea a A eed 139 Rated Data ocu eee ee ee A ey wey a ee a ae d 141 Performance Data c uec te RR ud Ia AiR AS Sere Bb Se eS 141 Outputs 2c ee A e ae ER BSR A A Reg ed du ux 141 Error Messages iia ee REA PUE OS noA A ACA AR ROAD RUSO ae dod 143 A tcc exea eto Guetta esc od d qiue oe o Pr mene ate nt nt tas EE eu E 143 R terences ox xS he Eek BARRE SO A A ROS eee PA SS 143 Parametric Spreadsheets 20000 ee A PRR Pe ee eek a eee Rd 144 Water to Water Heat Pump Parameter Coefficient Generator Cooling and Heating Mode 144 Water to Air Heat Pump
4. PR m e o U Saa R a WOo0oooo o o 00 TOO O 18 50 49 99984 NI lt lt lt Ko 21 0 60 E 22 50 50 00016 24 1 653482E 04 6 21 22 23 24 U SSS N w End Of Data EnergyPlus Version 8 2 999 999 60 00014 60 00015 1 377901E 04 60 00014 20 1 653482E 04 5 a7 1871920 60 00014 1 373291E 04 8 000166 0 0001 maxu 8 maxo 8 mino SouthWall EastWall 999 NorthWall e 99 WestWall 0 Floor 8 000166 999 Roof 0 emit Figure 19 View Factor Interface VerticesZoneSheet Page 107 Auxiliary Programs Notice the title from row 6 on the interface appears at the top of the input file and the control line information in rows 7 and 8 appear below the title line in a line with the character C at the left end The explanation of the control parameters from the program document states name value C c The control line includes the following parameters in order name value eps 1 0e 4 integration convergence criterion for both adaptive integration and view obstruction This is not an exact measure of the accuracy of the computed view factors but smaller values will usually lead to more precise values The convergence criteria should not be less than about 1 0e 6 because many of the intermediate calculations are accurate only to single 32 bit precision maxU 8 maximum recursions used in computing the unobstructed view factors maxO 8 maxi
5. Select File to Convert Selecting this command button brings up a common dialog interface that allows you to select a file for conversion from a specific set of default file extensions These are shown in the following table Note that you can mostly override the default file extension by the use of a simple DEF file and change the input file type Table 2 Input File Extensions with implied Data types File Extension Implicit Data File Type LST Processing List of Files any or CST Custom must have def file as specified below EPW EnergyPlus E E CSV Comma Delimited File EPW Format Note special EnergyPlus CSV format For other CSV files use the DEF file and describe the format TM2 TMY2 TMY TMY IWC IWEC WY2 WYEC2 DAT SAMSON FMT DOE 2 Formatted File CLM ESP r Climate Formatted File ASC BLAST ASCII EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 11 Auxiliary Programs File Extension Implicit Data File Type SWE SWERA WEA Ecotect WEA file Of course the all files may be used as well If the file selected is not one of the above types you will be cautioned to use the override default type button to select the correct type before proceeding Most of the data file types are described in other publications and won t be described in detail here Note on the input CSV format It is the EPW CSV format The CSV format must mirror the output CSV format very closely The processor expects a Location header record
6. m W m3 s c kg J Pa W m K W K deltaC m2 K 1 K kg s W J kg kg H20 kg air kJ kg lux kg m3 kg s kg s m m3 m3 W m2 K 1 m J kg K J m3 K m s m s m2 K W W m2 A K g kg g m s g m s K J K J kg K2 J m3 kg kg K kPa kPa m2 s m3 kg m3 m3 N s m2 V K W m K2 m3 s m J m2 K cycles hr kg kg SAT g GJ L GJ m3 GJ m3 s m2 m3 s person W m2 K2 g MJ L MJ m3 MJ W W y m2 kW m3 years W K m3 s W m K m W s kmol J GJ kg m2 kg percent K kg s2 i g mol deltaJ kg EnergyPlus Version 8 2 gt ft Btu h ft3 min F 1b Btu psi Btu in h ft2 F Btu h F deltaF ft2 R 1 R 1bm sec Btu hr Btu lb 1b H20 1b air Btu lb foot candles 1b ft3 1b s Ib s ft ft3 gal Btu h ft2 F 1 ft Btu lb F Btu ft3 F ft min miles hr ft2 F hr Btu Btu h ft2 A F grains lb 1b ft s lb ft s F Btu F Btu lb F2 Btu ft3 1b 1b F psi inHg ft2 s t3 1b ft3 ft3 lbf s ft2 V F Btu h F2 ft ft3 min ft Btu ft2 F cycles hr 1b 1b Btu Btu 1b MWh gal kWh ft3 MWh ft3 min ft2 ft3 min person Btu h ft2 F2 1b MWh gal kWh ft3 kWh Btuh Btuh ft2 kBtuh h ft3 years Btu h F t3 min Btu h ft F ft W s kmol Wh ton hrs 1b ft2 lb percent F 1b s2
7. missing 999 minimum 0 maximum 360 N21 field Wind Speed units m s missing 999 minimum 0 maximum 40 N22 field Total Sky Cover missing 99 minimum 0 maximum 10 N23 field Opaque Sky Cover used if Horizontal IR Intensity missing missing 99 minimum 0 maximum 10 N24 field Visibility units km EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 47 Auxiliary Programs missing 9999 N25 field Ceiling Height Nunits m missing 99999 N26 field Present Weather Observation N27 field Present Weather Codes N28 field Precipitable Water Nunits mm missing 999 N29 field Aerosol Optical Depth units thousandths missing 999 N30 field Snow Depth units cm missing 999 N31 field Days Since Last Snowfall missing 99 N32 field Albedo missing 999 N33 field Liquid Precipitation Depth units mm missing 999 N34 field Liquid Precipitation Quantity units hr missing 99 Data Field Descriptions Descriptions of the fields are taken from the IWEC manual as descriptive of what should be contained in the data fields Field Year This is the Year of the data Not really used in EnergyPlus Used in the Weather Converter program for display in audit file Field Month This is the month 1 12 for the data Cannot be missing Field Day This is the day dependent on month for the data Cannot be missing Field Hour This is the hour of the data 1 24 Hour 1 is 00 01 to 01 00 Cannot be missing Fiel
8. 13 1 Average Hourly Statistics for Global Horizontal Solar ONODORWNRO 23 HOC eS SOT HOC i OM GT pois SOT EOS Od Oils SOS Eds OM ia OAc gs 01 14 g oi alls 8 201 106 SOT dens OM ASE DOE Mig 01 20 SOR od OM 20 101223 01 24 Max Hour Min Hour 0 1o00P 50tNnE G 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 0 Oo0o0o0oooo w 197 272 326 353 365 280 206 Ooooooo 14 1 0 oo0ooo 150 268 409 473 490 476 409 281 135 oOooooo 0 0 0 0 0 o 17 119 254 414 532 626 638 619 505 381 221 73 OooooowWwv 0 0 0 0 0 2 83 237 383 558 641 746 726 708 595 463 321 196 14 0 QOO 0 0 0 0 0 31 136 295 469 625 749 800 787 763 656 523 349 184 oooo 0 0 0 0 0 45 165 330 650 773 845 872 855 751 594 421 244 87 5 oooo 0 0 0 Average Hourly Statistics for Total Sky Cover ONODAORWNRO 23 SO HO Oi 05 50d mois Ot Bodies Qu 58 EIOS S04 ts OLET OH 3S 01 14 SOT ibis DESTE OA Anes al ge 8 oil ROS glo 0 204 245 2105021 elo 2088 01 24 Max Hour Min Hour 0 4o0P50tNn 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 59 60 62 60 63 62 60 61 65 64 6
9. Berlin Walter de Gruyter amp Co Kusuda T Earth Temperatures Beneath Five Different Surfaces Institute for Applied Technology NBS Report 10 373 1971 NBS Washington DC 20234 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 72 Auxiliary Programs Kusuda T Least Squares Technique for the Analysis of Periodic Temperature of the Earth s Surface Region NBS Journal of Research Vol 71C Jan Mar 1967 pp 43 50 National Instruments Corporation 1999 LabVIEW User Manual Austin Texas National Instruments Corporation McDonald Iain and Paul Strachan 1998 Practical Application of Uncertainty Analysis in Proceedings of EPIC 98 Second International Conference on Energy Performance and Indoor Climate in Buildings Lyon France 19 21 November 1998 National Climatic Data Center NCDC 1976 Test Reference Year TRY Tape Reference Manual TD 9706 September 1976 Asheville North Carolina National Climatic Data Center U S Department of Commerce NCDC 1981 Typical Meteorological Year User s Manual TD 9734 Hourly Solar Radiation Surface Meteorological Observations May 1981 Asheville North Carolina National Climatic Data Center U S Department of Commerce NCDC 1981 Meteorological Observations May 1981 Asheville North Carolina National Climatic Data Center U S Department of Commerce NCDC 1993 Solar and Meteorological Surface Observation Network 1961 1990 Version 1 0 September 1993 Asheville North
10. Figure 10 Monthly Dew Point in K ppen Climates Northern Hemisphere EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 42 Auxiliary Programs please view them in the Input Output Reference document Briefly we have similar conventions that are important for reading the following tables minimum minimum gt values for this field must be either gt or gt than the following number maximum maximum lt values for this field must be either lt or lt than the following number missing if values in this field are gt the following number it is considered missing and missing data rules will apply default blank fields will receive the following as default values Vunits expected units for the field Standard EnergyPlus units are shown in the Input Output Reference Document Note that in the header records where date is used the interpretation is shown in the following table Table 14 Weather File Date Field Interpretation Field Contents Interpretation Header Applicability number Julian Day of Year All date fields lt number gt lt number gt Month Day All date fields lt number gt lt number gt Month Day Year DataPeriod only special lt number gt multiple year file ref RunPeriod CustomRange object in IDF Input Output Reference document lt number gt Month Day and Month All date fields Month lt number gt Day and Month All date fields lt number gt Weekday in Month
11. Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature calculate the design stats EnergyPlus Weather Converter V7 1 0 010 Statistics for FaroCST Location Faro PRT Qu gue 9 5 7 55 GMT 0 0 Hours Elevation 100m above sea Standard Pressure at Elevation Data Source Custom 085790 WMO Station 085790 level poe LOOW ZO Ra Displaying Design Conditions calculated from this weather file The following design temperature statistics are calculated based on THIS weather file ONLY and may not be representative of a long term period of record normally used for design temperatures Also note that dew point temperatures are listed where wet bulb temperatures are normally presented Design StatColdest MonthHDB 99 6 HDB 99 Units C Heating S 100 500 C Design StatHottest MonthCDB 4 CDB 1 CDB 2 CDP 4 CDP 1 CDP 2 Units it To TU c C c C Cooling BS Ro PA Os Chee 273 PH wale Design StatJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Units m s m s m s m s m s m s m s m s m s m s m s m s Max WS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O Heating Cooling Degree Days Hours calculated from this weather file are later in this report OO 50 DO 0 0 00 00 0 0 00 These are followed by groupings of Monthly t
12. N7 field ZO Surface Roughness Snow note typical value 0 10 N8 field HIN Indoor HConv Downward Flow note typical value 4 10 units W m2 K N9 field HIN Indoor HConv Upward note typical value 4 10 units W m2 K MatlProps or GroundHeatTransfer Slab MatlProps Object This object contains the material properties that describe the materials used in the model The fields are quite self explanatory and consist of the following Field RHO Slab Material Density Field RHO Soil Density These two fields specify the density of the slab material and the soil in SI units of kg m EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 82 Auxiliary Programs Field CP Slab CP Field CP Soil CP These two fields specify the specific heat of the slab and soil in SI units of J kg K Field TCON Slab K Field TCON Soil K These two fields specify the thermal conductivity of the slab and soil in W m K The IDD object is shown below MatlProps N1 field RHO Slab Material density note typical value 2300 0 units kg m3 N2 field RHO Soil Density note typical value 1200 0 units kg m3 N3 field CP Slab CP note typical value 650 0 units J kg K N4 field CP Soil CP note typical value 1200 0 units J kg K N5 field TCON Slab k note typical value 9 units W m2 K N6 field TCON Soil k note typical value 1 0 units W m2 K BoundConds or GroundHeatTransfer Slab BoundConds Object This object supplies
13. No action required Warning Take note Fix as applicable Severe Should Fix Fatal Program will abort An example of an error message due to an input syntax error is Severe Did not find DessignDay in list of Objects Fatal Errors occurred on processing IDF file probable incorrect IDD file View audit out for details x kkkkkkkkkkkk EnergyPlus Terminated Error s Detected eplusout audit This is an text file which echoes the IDD and IDF files flagging syntax errors in either file Note that both eplusout err and eplusout audit will show the error messages caused by input syntax errors however only eplusout err will show errors issued during the actual simulation eplusout audit can be used when you need to see the context of the error message to fully ascertain the cause eplusout eso The EnergyPlus Standard Output ESO is a text file containing the time varying simulation output The format of the file is discussed in the Guide for Interface Developers and the InputOutput Reference The contents of the file are controlled by Report Variable commands in the IDF file Although the ESO is a text file it is not easily interpretable by a human Usually postprocessing will be done on this file in order to put it in a format that can be read by a spreadsheet however a quick visual inspection of the file does show whether the expected variables are output at the desired time step eplusout mtr The EnergyPlus Meter Output MTR
14. Singapore EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 27 Auxiliary Programs Reports Files Produced by the Weather Converter Minimally two outputs are produced for every weather converter run an audit log file and a statistical report file The audit log file shows details of the processing including any errors as well as the statistical report The statistical report produced from the weather conversion process is a short but complete picture of the weather data on the file A single file stat extension is produced of the statistics about the data file A feature of the weather converter is to look in several design condition files for possible design conditions for the location from the stored design condition files source ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals 2001 If found WMO World Meteorological Organization id is used for matching these will be shown in the report as well as included in the output data files EPW and CSV as applicable In addition the K ppen classification scheme is used to characterize the climate based on the data file s contents Other statistics are given as well to help you visualize the data In the reporting section of the file each line contains tab delimited elements This will allow you to easily place the data into a spreadsheet program for further refinement but the tabs are not as intrusive for normal viewing as commas Audit Log File As an example the initial portion of an
15. The CTYW files are no longer available for download from the web site INETI Synthetic data for Portugal Two weather files for Portugal developed by Ricardo Aguiar of Instituto Nacional de Engenharia Tecnologia e Inova o INETI Synthetic data set based on spatially interpolation of public climatic data published by Instituto de Meteorologia 1951 80 combined with INETI owned data and other freely available data sources INETI has granted DOE permission to distribute versions of the individual INETI files in converted format suitable for EnergyPlus EPW and make those files available to users at no cost via this EnergyPlus web site The INETI synthetic data are 2005 Instituto Nacional de Engenharia Tecnologia e Inovac o Lisboa Portugal http www ineti pt ISHRAE India Weather Data Files ISHRAE Developed for use in simulating building heating and air conditioning loads and energy use and for calculating renewable energy utilization this set of 58 weather files was developed by the Indian Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers ISHRAE The source data are Copyright 2005 ISHRAE ISHRAE has made these data available to DOE under license for use at no cost to the EnergyPlus user community City University of Hong Kong CUHK Data Set CityUHK 45007 WMO72450070 Typical year file Hong Kong originally in IWEC format spreadsheet jointly developed by Dr TT Chow and ALS Chan of the City University of Hong K
16. Transition program to update the file Convert ESO MTR to IP Units Runs the convertESOMTR utility program see AuxiliaryPrograms documentation for more information This utility will convert the ESO and MTR files into Inch Pound units The CSV file created from these files will also be in Inch Pound units Create Statistics File Runs the CSVProc utility program see the AuxiliaryPrograms documentation for more information and creates the Proc csv file This file contains some simple statistics on each variable in the normal CSV file Create Batch File to Run EnergyPlus Traditionally EP Launch has created a batch file in order to execute EnergyPlus with the various options chosen This can cause problems with some operating systems such as Windows Vista when set to a higher security setting This option can be unchecked and a batch file is not created when running EnergyPlus instead parameters are passed to an existing batch file Run ParametricPreprocessor When this option is checked if Parametric objects are present in the file the ParametricPreprocessor will be run prior to the first simulation and if multiple simulations are needed they will all be executed See the Auxiliary Programs documentation for details Check for Updates to EnergyPlus When this option is checked EP Launch will check every seven days if an update to EnergyPlus or any of the files distributed with EnergyPlus are available to download If they are availabl
17. install EnergyPlus in the default install path lt root folder gt CD lt folder gt 1 Run the program EnergyPlus Version 8 2 1 Change to the specific folder for the console application lt batchfile gt lt input parameters gt Modifying the batch file Table 40 Environment Variables used in Batch Files Environment Variables Environment Variable Name Description Program Path Specific or relative program path Program Name Name of program Input Path Input Path Specification Output Path Output Path Specification Weather Path Weather Data Path Specification Several of the auxiliary programs included with EnergyPlus are Console Applications This designation means that they are executed from the command window Windows OS or terminal window Linux OS We will include generic instructions for the Windows OS use of these applications in this section Each program will also include specifics for the Windows OS in the individual program documentation As installed the batch files that accompany console applications will be set so that file extensions are not included for input parameters paths to installed data such as weather data will be set automatically and these paths can be modified by the user as desired Instructions included a bit later in this section Generally the batch files set several environment variables that govern the execution of the specific program Page 158 Auxiliary Progr
18. just select Original Input File Locations More advanced users may choose to define their locations for the output files using symbols that define the name of the directory and file name using I input file name 96G group file name W weather file name N repeat number for IMF files J input file path H group file path X weather file path Each of these symbols may be used in the location field and substitutions will be made for each when defining the output file location For macro files they have an extension IMF instead of IDF used in a parametric analysis the macro file may be run repeatedly up to 999 times Each time they are simulated a new COUNTER INC file is created which sets a macro parameter The COUNTER INC file should be included using the include statement in the macro file Finally you can save the EPG EnergyPlus Group file wherever you would like To run the simulations press the Simulate Group button on the Group of Input Files tab To prevent a specific simulation from being performed edit the file and use a comment character an exclamation point to comment out the line EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 172 Auxiliary Programs ia New Group of Simulations x Step 3 of 5 Review Simulations 1 C EnergyPlus E xampleFiles1ZoneUncontrolled idf C EnergyPlus WeatherData USA CA San Francisco TMY2 epw 2 C EnergyPlus ExampleFiles 1ZoneUncontrolled idf C SE
19. macro commands from its folder to this folder with the name in imf The installed name of the EP Macro program is epmacro exe After execution you can save the out idf in an appropriate folder or rename it to in idf in order to execute EnergyPlus You can view the audit out file for any errors that might have occurred during EP Macro processing Incorporating External Files include includefilename This command puts all of the lines in an external file into the EnergyPlus input stream starting right after the command line The name of the file that is included is the concatenation of prefixpathname entered using fileprefix and includefilename The lines in the external file will be listed in the resultant IDF file When all the lines in the external file have been read in input reverts back to the original input file at the line following the include command fileprefix prefixpathname specifies a pathname that will be prefixed to the filename given in an include command The fileprefix command allows commonly used include files to be kept in a directory other than the directory in which the current input file resides Example on a PC the combination fileprefix C EnergyPlus Library include SCHEDULES IDF will include into the EnergyPlus input stream the file whose full name is EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 117 Auxiliary Programs C EnergyPlus Library SCHEDULES IDF includesilent incl
20. noo 400f29292998 316 A 72 109 oO o fel hoi SQ ooi 303 WA 7A 1099 ol ol 192 nho eQy pope 315 W 72 1099 ol ol 132 Figure 12 EnergyPlus EPW CSV Data Records spreadsheet view EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 59 Auxiliary Programs TMY3 files have somewhat replaced TMY2 files but all TMY2 files are available for download from the website Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment SWERA Format The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment SWERA project funded by the United Nations Environ ment Program is developing high quality information on solar and wind energy resources in 14 developing countries Currently typical year hourly data are available for 156 locations in Belize Brazil China Cuba El Salvador Ethiopia Ghana Guatemala Honduras Kenya Maldives Nicaragua and Sri Lanka The data are available from the SWERA project web site http swera unep net The SWERA format is very similar to the TMY2 format except WMO stations are used 6 character in the header and 4 digit years have been adopted in the data lines WYEC2 Data Set Format Culminating in the early 1980s ASHRAE published their Weather Year for Energy Calculations WYEC hourly weather files for 51 US and Canadian locations These files were intended to support the then growing interest in computer simulation of energy use in buildings In the late 1980s a major revision was initiated this included the additio
21. 0 C outdoor coil entering dry bulb air temperatures per ANSI AHRI Std 210 240 AHRI 2008 If the rated test temperatures are different from the values populated by the tool then the user may enter the applicable values manually The rated data can be one of the performance data points depending on the speed or stage The rated data set is entered in the Cells range B11 E11 of the INPUT tab as shown in Figure 1 Performance Data The performance data set entered depends on the type of independent variables selected To generate performance curves e g DX Coils as a function of temperatures require the capacity and power data at various combinations of indoor and outdoor coil entering air temperatures at a rated supply air flow rate And performance curves e g DX Coil as function of flow fraction require capacity and power data at various supply air flow rates and rated indoor and outdoor coil entering air or water temperatures The performance data set may include the rated data as one of the data points The performance data set is entered starting from row 15 and down for each of the variables as shown in Figure 33 The total cooling and heating capacities must be the gross values i e not corrected for the supply fan heating effect Also the input power has to exclude the supply air fan power but includes other miscellaneous power inputs e g control panel power If manufacturers provide the total power then the supply fan power
22. 1 6 Conductivity W m K Insulation 5 0 REXT R Value of any exterior insulation K W m2 TRUE INSFULL Flag Is the wall fully insulated TRUE FALSE SurfaceProps 16 40 ALBEDO Surface albedo array 16 40 94 86 EPSLN Surface emissivity No Snow Snow 94 86 6 0 0 25 VEGHT Surface roughness NS S cm 6 0 0 25 TRUE PET Flag Potential evapotranspiration on T F Typically PET is True BldgData 2 DWALL Wall thickness m 2 1 DSLAB Floor slab thickness m 0 1 3 DGRAVXY Width of gravel pit beside footing m 0 3 2 DGRAVZN Gravel depth above the floor slab m 0 2 st 1 DGRAVZP Gravel depth below the floor slab m 0 1 Interior TRUE COND Flag Is the basement conditioned TRUE FALSE HIN Indoor convective heat transfer coefficients W m2 K Convection Only 1 Q Downward 2 Q Upward 3 Q Horizontal Conv and Radiation 4 Q Downward 5 Q Upward 6 Q Horizontal 0 92 Q Downward Convection Only 4 04 Q Upward Convection Only 3 08 Q HorizontalConvection Only 6 13 Q Downward Conv and Radiation EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 101 Auxiliary Programs 9 26 Q Upward Conv and Radiation 8 29 Q Horizontal Conv and Radiation EquivSlab 15 0 APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab m TRUE EquivSizing Flag Will the dimensions of an equivalent Slab be calculated TRUE or will the dimensions be input direct
23. 15m N2 field SLABX X dimension of the building slab 0 60 0 m N3 field SLABY Y dimension of the building slab 0 60 0 m N4 field ConcAGHeight Height of the fndn wall above grade m N5 field SlabDepth Thickness of the floor slab m 0 1 N6 field BaseDepth Depth of the basement wall below grade m ManualGrid memo Manual Grid only necessary using manual gridding not recommended Ni field NX Number of cells in the X direction 20 N2 field NY Number of cells in the Y direction 20 N3 field NZAG Number of cells in the Z direction above grade 4 Always N4 field NZBG Number of cells in Z direction below grade 10 35 N5 field IBASE X direction cell indicator of slab edge 5 20 N6 field JBASE Y direction cell indicator of slab edge 5 20 N7 field KBASE Z direction cell indicator of the top of the floor slab 5 20 XFACE memo This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended memo XFACE X Direction cell face coordinates m Ni N2 N3 N4 N5 NG N7 N8 N9 N10 N11 N12 N13 N14 N15 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 N27 N28 N29 N30 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40 N41 N42 N43 N44 YFACE memo This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended memo YFACE Y Direction cell face coordinates m N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10 N11 N12 N13 N14 N15 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 Energ
24. 199 Auxiliary EnergyPlus Programs Extra Programs for EnergyPlus Date April 1 2013 Auxiliary Programs Introduction This document will describe several of the auxiliary programs of the EnergyPlus system in more detail Some of these programs are only available or only distributed for certain platforms Typically the programs are available on the Windows platform Within the descriptions other platforms will be noted as applicable These programs include Weather Converter Program aka Weather Ground Heat Transfer in EnergyPlus Procedure for Ground Temperature creation View Factor Calculation Program Auxiliary program used to calculate View Factors which can be used with EnergyPlus Using Older Version Input Files Transition to convert input files from one version to another upon release of a new version EPDraw Create DXF files from your input files Input Macros Use a macro language to increase efficiency in creating EnergyPlus input files Unfortu nately IDF files containing macros cannot be read in the IDF Editor HVAC Diagram Use a post processing program to diagram your HVAC inputs CoeffConv Coeff Check Convert DOE 2 temperature dependent curves Fahrenheit to EnergyPlus tem perature curves Centigrade Celsius ExpandObjects Some technical details of the Expand Objects program which preprocessed HVACTem plate and GroundHeatTransfer objects for use inside EnergyPlus CSVproc G
25. 2 Under the View menu on the EP Launch program select Options then Command Window then check Pause During Simulation and this will pause the process immediately after EnergyPlus executes To continue after the pause press any key If the file contains Parametric objects the single input file may cause multiple simulations to be performed If multiple simulations are performed the output files will be listed on the History tab and will be named with either the file suffixes defined in the input file or with a serial number Multiple single input file and group simulations can be started at the same time On a computer with multiple processors or multiple cores this will enable the simulations to complete more quickly than starting one after another Looking at the Results After you have run a simulation and the black DOS window closes EnergyPlus has completed and a status message is displayed see figure below EnergyPlus Run Status C v6 0 0 01 4plus E xampleF iles SZoneACooled idf C Av6 0 0 002plus WeatherData USA_NJ_Newark_TMY2 epw Run Complete EnergyPlus Completed Successfully 2 Warring 0 Severe Errors Elapsed Time 00h 00min 37 72sec Figure 30 EP Launch Finish Status This status gives you a quick overview of whether there were warning should look at severe should probably fix or fatal must fix errors in the run as well as the time it took for the simulation to complete After pressing
26. 33 Inputs First step in curve generation is to select appropriate parameters from the dropdown menu These inputs define the DX Coil Type Curve Type Independent Variable and the Units type The choices available for each input parameters are described in table 1 Once these input parameters are selected the tool read in the values and automatically populates labels for each of the independent and dependent variables The EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 139 Auxiliary Programs agi id 2 e ail CurveFitTool Microsoft Excel File Home Insert Page Layout Formulas Data Review View Developer Team Y O o E X DXCoilType d fe Cooling Y A EN c D E 1 2 2 DxCoitTwpe Cooling l 4 Independent Variable 5 Curve Type Press To Generate Curves 6 Unts P 7 8 Curve Object Name 9 Rated Indoor Air Wet Rated Outdoor Air Dry Rated Gross Total Rated Compressor Plus M40 Bulb Temperature Bulb Temperature Cooling Capacity Outdoor Coil Fan Power TT 95 00 40 00 3 54 12 Indoor Air Wet Bulb Outdoor Air Dry Bulb Gross Total Cooling Compressor Plus Outdoor 13 Temperature Temperature Capacity Coil Fan Power 14 oF oF kBtuh kw 15 72 85 0 46 90 3 41 M 4 gt M INSTRUCTION INPUT OUTPUT lt J 1 m gt fi Ready 8 0 0 85 6 E U i Figure 27 Curve Fit Tool Input Interface labels guide users to enter the data for each variable in the corresponding worksheet input r
27. 85 2 56 T 20 92 20 14 21 11 22 6 89 4 00 8 21 17 20 44 21 85 22 5 78 3 07 9 21 22 20 45 214 22 5 74 2 89 10 21 21 20 26 21 44 22 6 44 2 93 11 19 62 18 54 19 88 20 5 41 1 41 12 19 35 17 99 19 67 20 1 44 2 41 Then for the same conditions the results with a 2 degree C amplitude 24 hour sine wave variation Notice that the inside temperatures are the same since they are monthly averages and the daily variation oscillates about the mean The core and perimeter slab temperatures are affected slightly Monthly Slab Outside Face Temperatures C Perimeter Area 304 00 Core Area 1296 00 Month Average Perimeter Core Inside 1 17 51 16 03 17 86 18 0 2 17 29 15 85 17 63 18 0 3 17 27 16 00 17 57 18 0 4 18 87 MPs ttl 19 13 20 0 5 19 1d 18 16 19 34 20 0 6 oen 18 34 19 37 20 0 7 20 81 20 07 20 98 22 0 8 21 05 20 36 21 21 22 0 9 21 09 20 38 21 26 22 0 10 21 08 20 19 21 29 22 0 11 19 47 18 45 TTT 20 0 12 19 20 NoD 19 51 20 0 An example of a 24 hour inside temperature profile for this case is shown below The sine wave amplitude was 2 C Day Hour Perim Out Ts Core Out Ts Inside Temp 1 1 17 30827 19 15832 18 51749 1 2 17 29503 19 15274 18 99974 1 3 17 30236 19 16732 19 41389 1 4 17 32258 19 19376 19 73175 1 5 17 34834 19 22526 19 93166 1 6 17 37288 19 25529 20 00000 1 7 17 39023 19 27798 19 93212 1 8 17 39544 19 28838 19 73265 1 9 17 38485 19 28117 19 41517 1 10 17 35602 19 24733 19 00130 1 11 17 30590 19 18686 18 51924 1 12 17 23507 19 102
28. 89 19 49 19 7 19 79 18 35 19 25 19 43 1974 1 29 6 26 18 68 19 4 19 7 19 79 18 12 19 14 19 25 19 66 1 27 7 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3333388383388 Figure 17 Output from Basement program EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 91 Auxiliary Programs If the Basement Objects see The Basement idd below are located in the standard EnergyPlus IDF input file than the Single Input File and Group of Input File tabs of EP Launch can be used and the Basement preprocessor will be called automatically during the simulation process In this case the Basement objects should all appear with the object name starting with GroundHeatTransfer Basement This option also requires a GroundHeat Transfer Control object in the EnergyPlus idf file see Input Output Reference If the Basement objects are located in a separate file they should be run using the Basement option on the Utilities tab in EP Launch See the EP Launch section in this document for more information on how to use EP Launch with the Basement program You can also run the Basement program as a console application To execute it we have provided the batch file RunBasement Steps for running the program 1 Open a DOS command prompt window Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt 2 Change to the directory where EnergyPlus is installed modify the commands below if you did not install EnergyPlus in the default install path Ge CD lt rootfolder gt 1 Change to the specific
29. Calculating CTFs for PARTITIONO6 Construction 2 Calculating CTFs for FLOOR SLAB 8 IN Construction 3 Calculating CTFs for ROOF34 Construction 4 Initializing Window Optical Properties Initializing Solar Calculations Initializing HVAC Warming up Warming up Warming up Performing Zone Sizing Simulation Warming up Warming up Warming up Performing Zone Sizing Simulation Initializing New Environment Parameters Warming up i Warming up 2 Warming up 3 Warming up 4 Starting Simulation at 01 14 for CHICAGO IL UNITED STATES TMY2 94846 WMO 725340 Initializing New Environment Parameters Warming up 1 Warming up 2 Warming up 3 Warming up 4 Starting Simulation at 07 07 for CHICAGO IL UNITED STATES TMY2 94846 WMO 725340 EnergyPlus Run Time 00hr OOmin 7 31sec EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 180 Auxiliary Programs When execution is finished eplusout err and eplusout audit will always appear If the program terminated with an input error these may be the only output files If the program runs normally eplusout eio will appear Depending on what was requested in the input the other output files described above will also be written RunEPlus details A procedure batch file is the normal way to run a console application The installed procedure file RunE Plus bat can be used to execute EnergyPlus and deal with all the file handling and postprocessing It can accommodate running the EPMacro program i
30. DP996 DB DP996 DP990 HR DP990 DB DP990 WS004c DB_WS004c WS010c DB WSO10c WS DB996 WD DB996 Units e De c c Cp PCT c fF ACE m s 4 C m s LE m s deg Heating 1 quomo 37 2 8 10 7 bo Gora bibo 12 9 k AEAN A T1156 12 52 252450 Design Stat HottestMonth DBR DB004 WB_DBOO4 DBO10 WB DBO10 DBO20 WB DBO20 WBOO4 DB WB004 WBO10 DB WBO10 WBO20 DB WBO20 WS DBOOA WD_DBOO4 DP004 HR_DP004 DB_DP004 DPO10 HR DPO10 DB DPO10 DPO20 HR_DP020 DB_DP020 ENO04 DB ENOOA ENO10 DB ENO10 ENO20 DB ENO20 4 amp Hrs 8 4 amp DB 12 8 20 6 Units Wr x9 COI c LOC c LOCI C c c C c tec 3 c m s deg C Y 1961 C De OC LOCH Uy 96 kJ kg 1 c kJ kg C kJ kg C ale Cooling 8 8 5 28 3 1 S22 25 7 16 7 23 6 16 2 18 6 25 17 8 23 9 ifr 22 4 Both Sul WSs ah ial 5 ile 58 15 3 10 9 1992 dam 10 4 ir T 52 4 25 8 49 8 23 8 47 6 22 4 2038 Design Stat WS010 WS025 WSO5O WBmax DBmin mean DBmax mean DBmin_stddev DBmax stddev DBminO5years DBmaxO5years DBminiOyears DBmaxi0years DBmin20years DBmax20years DBmin50years DBmax50years Units m s m s m s C LOG c c c C c c c C LOG C LOG Extremes ES 11 5 10 6 22 3 1 8 34 6 1 5 2 3 0 8 36 2 0 37 5 069 38 8 k 8 40 5 Displaying Monthly Design Conditions Climate Design Data 2009 ASHRAE Handbook Monthly Optical Sky Depth Beam taub and Diffuse taud Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec taub beam 0 316
31. File can be turned on and off and automatically performs the check whenever the file is saved Help Menu The Help menu offers options to open the EnergyPlus documentation files Caveats Remember to save any changes made before you create or edit another input file No Run EnergyPlus button is available Save your IDF file and use EP Launch to execute an EnergyPlus run You cannot edit comments in the Comments from IDF section of the screen The use of point or comma as the decimal symbol is controlled by the windows system settings This setting is found in the Control Panel Regional Options Number tab Decimal Symbol field IDF Editor will use the current decimal symbol to signify the start of the fractional portion of the number and will ignore other symbols The idf file is always written using point as the decimal symbol Bugs Please report any bugs to the helpdesk email to energyplus support gard com so that we can fix them prior to the next release EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 198 Auxiliary Programs Manipulating Output Files EP Compare The EP Compare program is intended to be used to compare the tabular results of several simula tions including the ABUPS summary report To generate tabular reports in EnergyPlus use the Out put Table SummaryReports object and make sure the OutputControl Table Style includes HTML output EP Compare displays bar graphs and monthly line graphs for most of
32. Infrared Radiation Intensity from Sky Global Horizontal Radiation Direct Normal Radiation Diffuse Horizontal Radiation Global Horizontal Illuminance Direct Normal Illuminance Diffuse Horizontal Illuminance Zenith Luminance Wind Direction Wind Speed Total Sky Cover Opaque Sky Cover Visibility Ceiling Height Present Weather Observation Present Weather Codes Precipitable Water Aerosol Optical Depth Snow Depth Days Since Last Snow Albedo Liquid Precipitation Depth Liquid Precipitation Quantity DataUnits mm dd yyyy hh mm x x x x C C Pa Wh m2 Wh m2 Wh m2 Wh m2 Wh m2 Wh AS Mz de SUE Smiths i tenths A a RO OC BR US A A T Data conversiontactors iii dl DelimiterChar DateSeparator DecimalSymbolChar amp datacontrol NumRecordsToSkip 19 MaxNumRecordsToRead 8784 MissingWindDirAction RANDOM Listing 1 DEF file for with non standard field delimiter and decimal symbol Here s an example of a file used to enhance a DOE 2 FMT file amp location City Kelburn StateProv Wellington Country NZL InWM0 934360 InLat 42 3333 InLong 174 8 InElev 8 InTime 1 amp wthdata NumInHour 1 InputFileType FMT amp miscdata Commentsi Standard Data Files for Computer Thermal Simulation of Solar Low Energy Non residential Buildings ven der Werff Amor and Donn 1990 Comments2 Full Actual year of dataSource data is TRY format converted to DOE 2 format Listing 2 DEF file for DOE
33. Intl Ap IL USA Annual Heating Wind 99 6 Design Conditions WS gt MCDB WS 12 4m s Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Heating Wind 99 Design Conditions WS gt MCDB WS 11 4m s Hottest Month July Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling DB gt MWB 4 MaxDB 33 3 C MWB 23 7 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Heating Design Conditions Wind Speed 4 9m s Wind Dir 270 Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling DB gt MWB 2 MaxDB 30 1 C MWB 22 1 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling WB gt MDB 4 MDB 31 2 C WB 25 5 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling WB gt MDB 1 MDB 29 6 C WB 24 5 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling WB gt MDB 2 MDB 28 1 C WB 23 5 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling DP gt MDB 4 MDB 28 9 C DP 23 8 C HR 0 0192 Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling DP gt MDB 1 MDB 27 7 C DP 22 9 C HR 0 0180 Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling DP gt MDB 2 MDB 26 5 C DP 21 9 C HR 0 0170 Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling Enthalpy gt MDB 4 MDB 31 4 C Enthalpy 79 2kJ kg Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling Enthalpy gt MDB 1 MDB 29 6 C Enthalpy 75 1kJ kg Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling Enthalpy gt MDB 2 MDB 28 2 C Enthalpy 70 9kJ kg Design day definitions originate in the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals Prior to 1997 these condi tions were described for winter an
34. Parameter Coefficient Generator Cooling 147 Water to Air Heat Pump Parameter Coefficient Generator Heating Mode 151 G Function Spreadsheet lt 0 nue ae 3 Aa fe a ee REOR X d 4 s 154 ParametricPreprocessor xs os os e A Boop ae ee e RA 155 AppGPostProcess Appendix G PostProcessing program o 155 BEASTLranslatote y RSS sequ ACE RR T EZ S de 156 DOEZErahbslator ome hU RE GU RUE e PURUS WA Ae NOR SUA A e om 156 Running Console Applications 158 Modifying the batch file o odd hor Ro eR RO le E OY EORR PES S 158 Technical Details of Running EnergyPlus eA 159 EP Latinch Program n wwe BEES RX Meu vechse RO ARX v Y ous Wee eet qe eed 159 EP Launch LEite goss gs ah Added o a et de RR be he Y XU INE PPS a 176 EnergyPlus File Extensions aaa 176 RunEPlus batelr fle uoo O RPrechSP RO RAS Y Y ru AR e deed 180 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 3 Auxiliary Programs Running EnergyPlus by Hand o e 180 RunEPlus details sia a XR a ee a ded d d ee ee Se yc 181 RunDirMulti Batch File 2 ss 182 Energy Plus Files y it a tne ee eS AA RP SENSE eur cam da UA 182 Creating Input Biles sua ee ee es ee ES A a ALIS ee Y o 185 IDD Conventi ns i 51 gE Wow ee ee Roh EH a ee ee ae A 185 IDEEditoruz 2 2 O EER ERR hee ivy ba ae See beh eA 189 Manipulating Output Files s ote mme ose RR RR CLARO dos 199 EP Conmpare ux 6 a Ru EE HE uS Ere RR a OE E o d
35. Slab objects are located in a separate file they should be run using the Slab option on the Utilities tab in EP Launch See the EP Launch section in this document for more information on how to use EP Launch with the Slab program You can also run the slab program as a console application To execute it we have provided the batch file RunSlab EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 78 Auxiliary Programs Steps for running the program 1 Open a DOS command prompt window Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt 2 Change to the directory where EnergyPlus is installed modify the commands below if you did not install EnergyPlus in the default install path C CD lt rootfolder gt 1 Change to the specific folder for the console application CD PreProcess GrndTempCalc 1 Run the program for example use the example included with the install RunSlab SlabExample USA_IL_Chicago OHare_TMY2 In the following section some description of modifying the batch file and details on files that the slab program uses are given Technical Details on Files for Ground Heat Transfer with Slabs The slab program used to calculate the results is included with the EnergyPlus distribution It requires an input file named GHTin idf in input data file format The needed corresponding idd file is SlabGHT idd An EnergyPlus weather file for the location is also needed A batch file RunSlab is placed in the same folder with the program and sample files T
36. Source I Diffuse Horizontal luminance Data Uncertainty 0 9 Zenith Luminance Data Source L Zenith Luminance Data Uncertainty 0 9 Wind Direction Data Source A F Wind Direction Data Uncertainty 0 9 Wind Speed Data Source A F Wind Speed Data Uncertainty 0 9 Total Sky Cover Data Source A F Total Sky Cover Data Uncertainty 0 9 Opaque Sky Cover Data Source A F Opaque Sky Cover Data Uncertainty 0 9 Visibility Data Source A F Visibility Data Uncertainty 0 9 Ceiling Height Data Source A F Ceiling Height Data Uncertainty 0 9 Precipitable Water Data Source A F Precipitable Water Data Uncertainty 0 9 Broadband Aerosol Optical Depth Data Source A F Broadband Aerosol Optical Depth Data Uncertainty 0 9 Snow Depth Data Source A F EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 66 Auxiliary Programs Data Flag Flag Values Snow Cover Data Uncertainty 0 9 Days Since Last Snowfall Data Source A F Days Since Last Snowfall Data Uncertainty 0 9 The definition of the solar radiation source flags and solar radiation uncertainty flags are shown in the following two tables Table 20 Solar Radiation and Illuminance Data Source Flag Codes Flag Code Definition A Post 1976 measured solar radiation data as received from NCDC or other sources B Same as A except the global horizontal data underwent a calibration correction C Pre 1976 measured global horizontal data direct and diffuse were not measured before 1976 adjusted from solar to l
37. TotSkyCvr 1 OpaqSkyCvr 1 Visibility km Ceiling Hgt m PresWeathObs PresWeathCodes Precip Wtr mm Aerosol Opt Depth 001 SnowDepth cm Days Last Snow Albedo 01 Rain mm Rain Quantity hr EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 55 Auxiliary Programs Then the longer names Date HH MM Datasource Dry Bulb Temperature C Dew Point Temperature C Relative Humidity 4 Atmospheric Pressure Pa Extraterrestrial Horizontal Radiation Wh m2 Extraterrestrial Direct Normal Radiation Wh m2 Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity from Sky Wh m2 Global Horizontal Radiation Wh m2 Direct Normal Radiation Wh m2 Diffuse Horizontal Radiation Wh m2 Global Horizontal Illuminance lux J Direct Normal Illuminance lux Diffuse Horizontal Illuminance lux Zenith Luminance Cd m2 Wind Direction deg Wind Speed m s Total Sky Cover 1 Opaque Sky Cover 1 Visibility km Ceiling Height m Present Weather Observation Present Weather Codes Precipitable Water mm Aerosol Optical Depth 001 Snow Depth cm Days Since Last Snow Albedo 01 Liquid Precipitation Depth mm Liquid Precipitation Quantity hr As noted previously these headers and data are in the identical order to the items in the EPW records Then the data is shown 1983 1 1 01 00 C9C9C9C9 079797979797979 0 C8C8C8C8 0 0E8 0 0 26 2 19 2 65 101100 0 1415 412 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 180 6 5 9 7 23 3 77777 9 999999999 0 0 2300 0 88 The Date and Time fields need a bit of descript
38. and any embedded expressions and produces a series of resulting IDF files one for each run described by the objects An intermediate file called parametric int is used that contains references to all embedded expressions that will need to be substituted into the file An error file called parametric err is also produced to help debug problems with the objects The Parametric objects are described in detail in the InputOutputReference document ParametricPreprocessor can be called at the command line with the name of the source file as the only argument The ParametricPreprocessor is used in the batch files that come with EnergyPlus and is used by EP Launch automatically AppGPostProcess Appendix G PostProcessing program The baseline for Standard 90 1 Appendix G requires simulating the baseline building in four cardinal direc tions and comparing the average of those simulation results with the proposed building simulation results The AppGPostProcess utility helps perform the averaging needed The utility takes the four HTML files generated by EnergyPlus and creates an average HTML file In addition the AppGPostProcess utility takes the four CSV files based on ESO files and creates an average CSV file as well as averaging the meter CSV files based on the MTR files The source files must have specific names for this utility to work leNameRoot G000 csv eNameRoot G090 csv leNameRoot G180 csv leNameRoot G270 csv leNameRoot G000M
39. audit file is shown illustrating the error reporting Input File Type WY2 with FileName D DevTests Release WeatherData 04772 wy2 Out of Range Data items will NOT be corrected Warning Dew Point 5 00 C gt Dry Bulb 4 90 C on date 5 1 at hour 4 Warning Dew Point 4 80 C gt Dry Bulb 4 40 C on date 5 1 at hour 5 Warning Dew Point 4 70 C gt Dry Bulb 3 80 C on date 5 1 at hour 6 Warning Suspected missing data line after processing 365 days Month 0 Day O Hour 0 Processing continues but may be in error Warning Suspected Blank line after processing 365 days Remaining records if any will be ignored Warning Missing Data Found on Source Weather Data File Missing and corrected Aerosol Optical Depth Number of items 8760 Warning Out of Range Data Found on Weather Data File Qut of Range Dew Point Temperatures gt Dry Bulb Temperatures Number of items 3 Start Date End Date for Weather Source Start Date Jan 1 End Date Dec 31 Actual Data Years for Monthly Data JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 1966 1980 1964 1964 1968 1970 1977 1981 1979 1969 1974 1960 Not all weather data sources represent contiguous years Monthly data values may come from different years Data Sources should be checked for relevancy to these statistics Average Delta DB Change 0 76 C Std Dev 0 73 C Average Delta DP Change 0 62 C Std Dev 0 69 C Average Delta Relative Humidity C
40. be enough for some locations this allows the override capability Field MaxDirectSolar MaxDiffuseSolar MaxllluminanceValue Default maximum solar values may not be enough for some locations this allows the override capability EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 21 Auxiliary Programs Field GenerateSolarRadiationWarnings GeneratellluminanceWarnings Ifyou don t want to see extra warnings when input values are greater than max values default or as specified in previous fields use NO as the keyword Use YES to make sure you see the warnings Default is YES Def File Examples In the following examples every attempt has been made to make sure that these work with the Weather Converter program However we cannot foresee all possible combinations Caveat emptor user beware Here s an example where the delimiter between fields is a semi colon and the decimal symbol character is a comma typical of some non USA regional settings amp location City lt cityname gt StateProv lt state province gt Country lt country gt InWMO lt wmo gt InLat lt latitude gt InLong lt longitude gt InElev lt elevation gt InTime lt timezone gt amp wthdata NumInHour 1 InputFileType CUSTOM InFormat DELIMITED DataElements Date HH MM Datasource Dry Bulb Temperature Dew Point Temperature Relative Humidity Atmospheric Pressure Extraterrestrial Horizontal Radiation Extraterrestrial Direct Normal Radiation Horizontal
41. convert the raw data ESO and MTR files to IP Inch Pound units before later processing into CSV files EP Launch has an option to automatically convert to IP units that invokes convertESOMTR see VIEW Options Miscellaneous dialog box The ReadVarsESO program will take these converted files and make them into normal CSV files but will have IP units The RunEPlus batch file does not include this option but could be edited to perform the same functions if desired EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 134 Auxiliary Programs Technically speaking the convert ESOMTR program uses the convert txt file which contains the conversion factors It creates files ip eso and ip mtr as appropriate The batch examples then renames the old eplu sout eso to eplusout esoold old eplusout mtr to eplusout mtrold and the ip files to the default eplusout eso eplusout mtr The convert txt file contains the conversion factors using three different commands conv wild 95 05 99 vari If a specific variable needs to be converted the vari line may be used to convert the units on that specific variable only To convert a class of variables that contains a specific string of characters in the names of the variables the wild line may be used The conv lines are the lines that actually create the conversion factors If no vari or wild match a variable then it is converted used the first conv line that
42. cover and current weather Weather Format for Simulation Programs For these reasons we developed a generalized weather data format for use with two major simulation pro grams ESP r and EnergyPlus Crawley et al 1999 All the data are in SI units The format is simple text based with comma separated data It is based on the data available within the TMY2 weather format but has been rearranged to facilitate visual inspection of the data The TMY2 data are a strict position specific format filling missing data with nines and zero values with zeroes The new weather data format contains commas to facilitate data reading and analysis with spreadsheet programs By eliminating redun dant fill values the size of each file is only slightly larger than the original TMY2 format Details about the TMY2 format can be found in the TMY2 User s manual see references at the end of this section The traditional distribution of data source and uncertainty flags within the raw data fields carries with it not only the need for many field separators it obfuscates the relationships between non numerical data In a set of minute data which could easily require hundreds of thousands of records the space penalty is considerable In the E E file format all data source and uncertainty fields have been clumped together as a single field immediately following the day and time stamp For applications where uncertainty is not an issue such data can be ea
43. currently used in EnergyPlus calculations It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 9999 Field Extraterrestrial Direct Normal Radiation This is the Extraterrestrial Direct Normal Radia tion in Wh m2 Amount of solar radiation in Wh m2 received on a surface normal to the rays of the sun at the top of the atmosphere during the number of minutes preceding the time indicated It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 9999 Field Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity This is the Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity in Wh m2 If it is missing it is calculated from the Opaque Sky Cover field as shown in the following explanation It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 9999 4 Horizontalyp SKY emissivity o Temperatureg bulb where Horizontal g horizontal IR intensity W m SKY emissivity Sky emissivity c Stefan Boltzmann constant 5 6697e 8 W m K Temperatureg y bup drybulb temperature K The sky emissivity is given by Temperaturegey point 273 0 Nishi 0 787 0 764 In 1 0 0224N 0 0035 0 00028 where Temperaturegewpoint dewpoint temperature K N opaque sky cover tenths Example Clear sky N 0 Temperatureg p u1 273 20 293K Temperaturegewpoint 273 10 283K Sky emissivity 0 787 0 764 0 036 0 815 Horizontal
44. daylight saving period For example using a RunPeriod EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 45 Auxiliary Programs RunPeriod Lo Begin Month Es Begin Day Of Month 12 End Month Bil End Day Of Month Wednesday Day Of Week For Start Day Yes Use WeatherFile Holidays Special Days No Use WeatherFile DaylightSavingPeriod Yes Apply Weekend Holiday Rule Yes Use WeatherFile Rain Indicators Yes Use WeatherFile Snow Indicators Will use any holidays specified in the Holidays Daylight Saving header record of the weather file but will not use the Daylight Saving Period that is specified there if any In addition the user can specify Special Day Periods via the Special Day Period object and or Daylight Saving Period via the Daylight Saving Period object to additionally specify these items COMMENTS 1 A1 field Comments 1 COMMENTS 2 A1 field Comments 2 The Comment header records may provide additional information about the weather data source or other information which may not fit in other header record formats DATA PERIODS N1 field Number of Data Periods N2 field Number of Records per hour A1 field Data Period 1 Name Description A2 field Data Period 1 Start Day of Week type choice key Sunday key Monday key Tuesday key Wednesday key Thursday key Friday key Saturday A3 field Data Period 1 Start Day A4 field Data Period 1 End Day note repeat above to number of data periods et
45. e DB gt MWB often represent conditions on hot mostly sunny days These are often used in sizing cooling equipment such as chillers or air conditioning units e Design conditions based on wet bulb temperatures i e WB gt MDB represent extremes of the total sensible plus latent heat of outdoor air This information is useful for cooling towers evaporative coolers and fresh air ventilation system design e Design conditions based on dew point temperatures i e DP gt MDB are directly related to extremes of humidity ratio which represent peak moisture loads from the weather Extreme dew point condi tions may occur on days with moderate dry bulb temperatures resulting in high relative humidity These values are especially useful for humidity control applications such as desiccant cooling and dehumidification cooling based dehumidification and fresh air ventilation systems The values are also used as a check point when analyzing the behavior of cooling systems at part load conditions particularly when such systems are used for humidity control as a secondary function Humidity ratio EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 38 Auxiliary Programs values are calculated from the corresponding dew point temperature and the standard pressure at the location s elevation e The enthalpy design conditions ie Enthalpy gt MDB gives the annual enthalpy for the cooling season this is used for calculating cooling loads caused by infiltration and or
46. file For Input and Output file names the complete paths should be included ErrorFlag will be returned as true if an error occurs during processing or false if the process is successful Fortran 90 95 Declaration INTERFACE SUBROUTINE ProcessWeather InType OutType InFileName OutFileName ErrFlag CHARACTER len INTENT IN InType InputFile Type CHARACTER len INTENT IN OutType QutputFile Type CHARACTER len INTENT IN InFileName InputFile Name Full path CHARACTER len INTENT IN OutFileName OutputFileName Full path LOGICAL Byte2 INTENT OUT ErrFlag If errors are found set to true and put description put in file END SUBROUTINE END INTERFACE And calling it from Fortran call processweather trim intype trim outtype amp trim infilename trim outfilename errflag Note that the file where error messages will be placed is the RPT file If the value of the output file path is incorrect you may need to search for this file by using the RPT extension EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 71 Auxiliary Programs References ASHRAE 1985 Weather Year for Energy Calculations Atlanta American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers Inc ASHRAE 1997 WYEC2 Weather Year for Energy Calculations 2 Toolkit and Data Atlanta ASHRAE ASHRAE 2001 International Weather for Energy Calculations IWEC Weather Files Users Manual and CD ROM Atl
47. folder for the console application CD PreProcess GrndTempCalc 1 Run the program for example use the example included with the install RunBasement BasementExample USA_IL_Chicago OHare_TMY2 In the following section some description of modifying the batch file and details on files that the basement program uses are given Technical Details on Files for Ground Heat Transfer with Basements The basement program used to calculate the results is included with the EnergyPlus distribution It requires an input file named BasementGHTin idf in input data file format The needed corresponding idd file is Basement GHT idd An EnergyPlus weather file for the location is also needed A batch file RunBasement is placed in the same folder with the program and sample files To use it Command mode or DOS mode one may modify several important lines Instructions Complete the following path and program names path names must have a following or errors will happen set program_path set program name Basement exe set input path set output path set weather_path C EnergyPlus WeatherData and then in command mode issue the run command RunBasement myinput Chicago Where you would have myinput idf in input_ path and Chicago would be the name of the epw file in the weather path You should set up the command mode so that it does not automatically close the window at the end of program termination if you want to see the commands as the
48. for all polygon gt 4 sides surfaces It will look like a hole in the drawing Also it will look the same in both wireframe and 3D views e Wireframe This option creates a wireframe drawing all lines for all surfaces All surfaces will appear as lines in both wireframe and 3D views Note that the EPDrawGUI program only processes building and shading surfaces It does not process daylighting reference points though the similar option in the EnergyPlus program Report Surfaces DXF does show the daylighting reference points but not illuminance map points in the DXF view Input Macros Introduction The Input Macros feature increases the flexibility of the EnergyPlus input files This feature is intended for advanced users who are already familiar with EnergyPlus IDF files and need to prepare input manually The basic capabilities are e Incorporating external files containing pieces of IDF into the main EnergyPlus input stream e Selectively accepting or skipping portions of the input e Defining a block of input with parameters and later referencing this block e Performing arithmetic and logical operations on the input e Input macro debugging and listing control EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 116 Auxiliary Programs These capabilities are invoked in the EP MACRO program by using macro commands Macro commands are preceded by to distinguish them from regular EnergyPlus input commands After execution by the EP MACRO pro
49. for the input source data types By and large most of the data sources and uncertainties have used the TMY2 established fields and values See following table As noted earlier to enhance readability and reduce obfuscation the EnergyPlus format for the data source and uncertainty flags collates them into one large field Each data element still has its data source and uncertainty it is positionally embodied depending on its place in the EPW data record Table 19 Key to Data Source and Uncertainty Flags Data Flag Flag Values Dry Bulb Temperature Data Source A F Dry Bulb Temperature Data Uncertainty 0 9 Dew Point Temperature Data Source A F Dew Point Temperature Data Uncertainty 0 9 Relative Humidity Data Source A F Relative Humidity Data Uncertainty 0 9 Atmospheric Station Pressure Data Source A F Atmospheric Station Pressure Data Uncertainty 0 9 Horizontal Infrared Radiation Data Source A H Horizontal Infrared Radiation Data Uncertainty 0 9 Global Horizontal Radiation Data Source A H Global Horizontal Radiation Data Uncertainty 0 9 Direct Normal Radiation Data Source A H Direct Normal Radiation Data Uncertainty 0 9 Diffuse Horizontal Radiation Data Source A H Diffuse Horizontal Radiation Data Uncertainty 0 9 Global Horizontal Illuminance Data Source L Global Horizontal Illuminance Data Uncertainty 0 9 Direct Normal Illuminance Data Source L Direct Normal Illuminance Data Uncertainty 0 9 Diffuse Horizontal Illuminance Data
50. format and were derived from the Canadian Energy and Engineering Data Sets CWEEDS of hourly weather information for Canada from the 1953 1995 period of record The 80 CWEC files contain hourly weather observations representing an artificial one year period specifi cally designed for building energy calculations All 80 locations in the CWEC data set are available for download in EnergyPlus weather format International Weather for Energy Calculations IWEC The IWEC are the result of ASHRAE Research Project 1015 conducted by Numerical Logics and Bodycote Materials Testing Canada for ASHRAE Technical Committee 4 2 Weather Information The IWEC data files are typical weather files suitable for use with building energy simulation programs for 227 locations outside the USA and Canada EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 60 Auxiliary Programs The files are derived from up to 18 years of DATSAV3 hourly weather data originally archived at the U S National Climatic Data Center The weather data is supplemented by solar radiation estimated on an hourly basis from earth sun geometry and hourly weather elements particularly cloud amount information The IWEC CD ROM is available from ASHRAE The Department of Energy has licensed the IWEC data from ASHRAE Our license with ASHRAE allows us to Distribute versions of the individual IWEC files in converted format suitable for EnergyPlus EPW Make the EnergyPlus versions of the IWEC files available t
51. grid spacing Because of this autogridding will fail if the slab thickness is specified larger than 0 25 meters The program also is set up so that the slab is a single finite difference cell in the vertical direction Thus if the slab thickness is set too large the accuracy of the calculation may be suspect Typical value is 0 1 Field BaseDepth Depth of the basement wall below grade This field specifies the depth of the basement wall below grade level m This is the height of the wall above the footing Field N2 specifies the height of the basement wall above the grade level This should be zero for EnergyPlus runs since if an above grade segment is to be simulated it should be done with EnergyPlus not with the basement program Field N3 specifies the floor slab thickness Field N4 specifies the depth of the basement wall below grade level This is the height of the wall above the footing Sample idf File Basement Minneapolis Test Cases SimParameters Q1 F Multiplier for the ADI solution O F 1 0 typically 0 1 0 5 for high k ibg IYRS Maximum number of iterations typically 25 30 MatlProps 6 NMAT Number of materials in this domain UP TO 6 2242 6 2242 6 311 66 1500 0 2000 0 448 5 RHO 1 6 Matl density Fndn wall Floor Slab Ceiling Soil Gravel Wood kg m3 880 0 880 0 1513 0 840 0 720 0 1630 0 CP 1 6 Specific Heat J kg K 15402 5175402 52207093 Oats 4 29 9 0715 9 TCON
52. idf 5ZoneAuto idf 5Zone amp utoDXVAV idf 5ZoneBoilerDutsideAirReset idf 5ZoneDD idf 5ZoneDDCycOn ny idf 5ZoneDDCycOn ne idf EZoneE ngChill idf 5ZoneRetumFan idf 5ZoneSupRetPlen idf 5ZoneWwarmest idf 5ZonewaterCooled idf 5ZoneWaterCooled HighRHControl idf xl Figure 36 EP Launch Step 1 of New Group Wizard EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 171 Auxiliary Programs So x Step 2 of 5 Select Weather Files E WEnergyPlusYw eatherData Path USA C San Francisco TMY2 epw USA CO Boulder TMY2 epw LIS5 FL Tampa TMY2 epw USA IL Chicago OHare TMY2 epw USA V Sterling W ashington Dulles TMY2 epw Figure 37 EP Launch Step 2 of New Group Wizard The next step is to review the simulations selected Each combination of weather file and input file is initially shown Each simulation is displayed as a single row You may select a row and delete the simulation at this point In addition if additional simulations are desired the Add more simulations button brings you back to the first step of the wizard to add more file The next step of the wizard allows you to decide exactly where you want the output files located and what they should be named For most people just trying to group their simulations and wanting the output files in the same directory as the input files
53. important fields are those representing liquid precipitation where the surfaces of the building would be wet EnergyPlus uses Snow Depth to determine if snow is on the ground Table 16 Weather Codes Field Interpretation Column Position Element Possible in Field Description Values Definition 1 Occurences of 0 2 4 6 0 Thunderstorm lightning and thunder Wind Thunderstorm 9 gusts less than 25 7 m s and hail if any less than 1 9 Tornado or cm diameter 1 Heavy or severe thunderstorm Squall frequent intense lightning and thunder Wind gusts greater than 25 7 m s and hail if any 1 9 cm or greater diameter 2 Report of tornado or waterspout 4 Moderate squall sudden increase of wind speed by at least 8 2 m s reaching 11 3 m s or more and lasting for at least 1 minute 6 Water spout beginning January 1984 7 Funnel cloud beginning January 1984 8 Tornado beginning January 1984 9 None if Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 51 Auxiliary Programs Column Position Element Possible in Field Description Values Definition 2 Occurrence of 0 9 0 Light rain 1 Moderate rain 2 Heavy rain 3 Rain Rain Light rain showers 4 Moderate rain showers 5 Showers or Heavy rain showers 6 Light freezing rain 7 Freezing Rain Moderate freezing rain 8 Heavy freezing rain 9 None if Obser
54. input for the ground loop heat exchanger model The response of the borehole ground is found from the G function that is defined in the input as series of n pairs of values LNTTSn GNFCn It is important to note that the G functions have to be calculated for specific GHE configurations and borehole resitance length and borehole length ratio That is the parameters for the units vary with each design The data in this file are intended as examples samples and may not represent actual designs The sample data has been calculated for a number of configurations e 1 x 2 boreholes e 4x 4 boreholes e 8 x 8 boreholes Data is given for both standard grout k 0 744 W m K and thermally enhanced grout k 1 471 W m K The flow rate per borehole is 1514 kg s The pipe given is 0 75in Dia SDR11 HDPE The fluid is water The borehole length ratio is 0 06 76 2m 4 572m 300ft 15ft EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 154 Auxiliary Programs ParametricPreprocessor The parametric preprocessor used to create a series of resulting IDF files from a single source IDF file that contains parametric objects and expressions The parametric objects in EnergyPlus are interpreted by the ParametricPreprocessor and are Parametric Set ValueForRun Parametric Logic Parametric RunControl Parametric FileNameSuffix The ParametricPreprocessor reads the source IDF file and removes the Parametric objects shown above processes these objects
55. is installed modify the commands below if you did not install EnergyPlus in the default install path C CD lt root folder gt 1 Change to the specific folder for the coefficient conversion applications CD PostProcess 1 Run the program CSVproc Where is the name of a CSV file including extension There is a simple readme txt file in the folder The program performs some simple statistics on each column and creates a new file with the same name without extension and PROC CSV added to the name The statistics performed on each column are SUM MAX MIN AVERAGE EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 133 Auxiliary Programs COUNT COUNTIF gt 0 COUNTIF gt 5 COUNTIF gt 10 COUNTIF gt 15 COUNTIF gt 20 COUNTIF gt 25 COUNTIF gt 30 COUNTIF gt 35 COUNTIF gt 40 COUNTIF gt 45 COUNTIF gt 50 COUNTIF gt 55 COUNTIF gt 60 COUNTIF gt 65 COUNTIF gt 70 COUNTIF gt 75 COUNTIF gt 80 COUNTIF gt 85 COUNTIF gt 90 COUNTIF gt 95 COUNTIF gt 100 COUNTIF 1 COUNTIF lt 19 9 COUNTIF gt 24 0 Obviously not all statistics are relevant for every output report variable The average is based on the sum divided by the number of non blank rows The average is not based on the length of time for that timestep Due to this CSVproc is best suited for an hourly output file Source code is available upon request from jglazer gard com convert ESOMTR This simple post processing utility will
56. is substituted N6 field Dry Bulb Temperature units C minimum gt 70 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 46 Auxiliary Programs maximum lt 70 missing 99 9 N7 field Dew Point Temperature units C minimum gt 70 maximum lt 70 missing 99 9 N8 field Relative Humidity missing 999 minimum 0 maximum 110 N9 field Atmospheric Station Pressure units Pa missing 999999 minimum gt 31000 maximum lt 120000 N10 field Extraterrestrial Horizontal Radiation units Wh m2 missing 9999 minimum 0 N11 field Extraterrestrial Direct Normal Radiation units Wh m2 missing 9999 minimum 0 N12 field Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity units Wh m2 missing 9999 minimum 0 N13 field Global Horizontal Radiation units Wh m2 missing 9999 minimum 0 N14 field Direct Normal Radiation units Wh m2 missing 9999 minimum 0 N15 field Diffuse Horizontal Radiation Nunits Wh m2 missing 9999 minimum 0 N16 field Global Horizontal Illuminance units lux missing 999999 note will be missing if gt 999900 minimum 0 N17 field Direct Normal Illuminance units lux missing 999999 note will be missing if gt 999900 minimum 0 N18 field Diffuse Horizontal Illuminance units lux missing 999999 note will be missing if gt 999900 minimum 0 N19 field Zenith Luminance units Cd m2 missing 9999 note will be missing if gt 9999 minimum 0 N20 field Wind Direction units degrees
57. is used clearing Table 1 worksheet CATALOG DATA Table 2 and Table 3 worksheet INPUT It is advisable to clear the tables before generating parameters coefficients for a new heat pump model Clear Previous Catalog Data After Table 3 is created the parameters coefficients are then calculated as follows e Worksheet ParamEstimator is used for generating the parameters for the parameter estimation based model using Nelder Mead Simplex Refer to the steps in the Parameter Estimation Procedure e Worksheet CoeffCalculator is used for calculate the coefficients for the curve fit model using the generalized least square method Refer to the steps in the Curve Fit Model procedure EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 148 Auxiliary Programs Parameter Estimation Procedure Step 2a Generating First Set of Parameters PE Based Model e Using contents of Table 3 the program can generate parameters The user must fill all the cells colored light blue in worksheet ParamEstimator e Accuracy Start with a low accuracy for faster convergence recommended value of 0 001 e Compressor Type User is allowed to select from 3 types of compressors scroll rotary or recipro cating Contact the manufacturer to make sure that the compressor selected is correct Wrong type of compressor selected would lead to the program crashing or inaccurate parameters e Refrigerant Contact the manufacturer on the refrigerant used to genera
58. matches The default convert txt file contains some conversions for Inch Pound units but any set of units may be used by editing the convert txt file Note that the convert txt file uses the standard EnergyPlus comment character 1 A snippet of the convert txt file 1 kW 1000 W conv W kW 0 001 0 1 Btuh 0 2928751 W 1 kBtuh 1000 Btuh conv W kBtuh 3 41442E 03 0 CalcSoilSurfTemp Program The CalcSoilSurf Temp program calculates three important parameters for the simulation of the earth tube e the annual average soil surface temperature e the amplitude of soil surface temperature e the phase constant of soil surface temperature Since soil temperature is one of the most significant factors affecting the overall performance of earth tube system soil temperature around the earth tube should be accurately predicted Before the soil temperature around earth tube can be calculated during the running period of earth tube model in EnergyPlus the ground surface temperature straight above earth tube should be predicted Using CalcSoilSurfTemp program these parameters are predicted by considering the convective heat transfer be tween the air and ground solar radiation absorption by the ground long wave radiation emitted from the soil and latent heat loss due to the moisture evaporation at the ground surface Running the Program EP Launch can be used to run the CalcSoilSurfTemp program CalcSoilSurfTemp is one of the options o
59. more information units Units must be from EnergyPlus standard units list EnergyPlus units are standard SI units ip units IP Units for use by input processors with IP units This is only used if the default conversion is not appropriate unitsBasedOnField For fields that may have multiple possible units indicates the field in the object that can be used to determine the units The field reference is in the A2 form minimum Minimum that includes the following value minimum gt Minimum that must be gt than the following value maximum Maximum that includes the following value maximum lt Maximum that must be lt than the following value default Default for the field if N A then omit entire line deprecated This field is not really used and will be deleted from the object The information is gotten internally within the program autosizable Flag to indicate that this field can be used with the Auto Sizing routines to produce calculated results for the field If a value follows this then that will be used when the Autosize feature is flagged To trigger autosizing for a field enter Autosize as the field s value Only applicable to numeric fields autocalculatable Flag to indicate that this field can be automatically calculated To trigger auto calculation for a field enter Autocalculate as the field s value Only applicable to numeric fields type Type of data for the field integer real alpha arbitrary
60. name to show its original data file type Note on Save As Since you select the save as file name from a dialog the processor DOES NOT warn you of overwriting previous files of the same name In addition if you have previously saved several types e g EPW and CSV but this time only save the RPT it DOES NOT create new of the others nor does it delete the previous ones Convert File Pressing this button causes the processing of the data to proceed If you choose a Ist input format you will see messages as each once is completed and or has errors If you choose a single data file you will see a similar message box once the processing is done or has terminated due to errors Help No online help is available This brings up an about box for the program Definitions File amp Custom File Processing Description of Def input file Some of the data formats have inherent omissions e g TMY does not have location data BLAST ASCII does not have elevations In order to overcome this limitation and to provide further flexibility a definitions file extension must be def is implemented By naming this with the same file name as your input file in the same folder the weather converter will read the format and use that data as appropriate in the file conversions The def file uses Fortran Namelist input fields as shown in the example below For flexibility you can also define a presets def file such as wh
61. noted earlier there are three output parameters and they are automatically saved in the CalcSoil Surf TIemp out file The basic concept and description of three output parameters are as follows Annual Average Soil Surface Temperature This is the annual average value of soil surface temperature Amplitude of Soil Surface Temperature This is the difference between the maximum and minimum soil surface temperature of the whole year divided by two Phase Constant of Soil Surface Temperature This is the time elapsed from the beginning of the year at which the soil surface temperature reaches the minimum value in the year These values are placed in the ZoneEarthTube object numeric fields 12 13 14 of similar names The ZoneEarth Tube IDD definition with these fields highlighted is included ZoneEarthtube min fields 22 memo Earth Tube is specified as a design level which is modified by a Schedule fraction temperature difference and wind speed memo Earthtube Edesign Fschedule A B Tzone Todb C WindSpd D WindSpd 2 A1 field Zone Name required field type object list object list ZoneNames A2 field Schedule Name required field type object list object list ScheduleNames N1 field Design Flow Rate required field units m3 s note Edesign in Equation type real minimum 0 N2 field Minimum Zone Temperature when Cooling required field note this is the indoor temperature below which the earth tube is
62. number degrees ACOS OF number number degrees ATAN OF number number INT OF number number LOG10 OF number number LOG OF number number literall concatenate literal2 literal literallliteral2 literall concatenate literal2 literal literall literal2 literal EQS literal logical true or false case sensitive literal NES literal logical true or false case sensitive literal EQSU literal logical true or false not case sensitive literal NESU literal logical true or false not case sensitive logical AND logical logical true or false logical OR logical logical true or false NOT logical logical true or false number EQ number logical true or false number NE number logical true or false number GT gt number logical true or false number GE number logical true or false number LT lt number logical true or false number LE number logical true or false Upper or lower case is allowed for SIN COS etc Upper or lower case is allowed for OF EQS etc Example eval 1 2 when expanded becomes 3 eval 1 eval 2 3 when expanded becomes 7 Example set1 city Washington DesignDay city SUMMER Design Day Name gives DesignDay Washington SUMMER Design Day Name The following example illustrates the use of eval inside if commands if city EQS Chicago HH city EQS Chicago
63. of the program Copy and Paste Parameters 1 to Initial Guess 2 Change the initial guess indicator Which Initial Guess from 1 to 2 e Increase the accuracy by twice For example set accuracy to 0 000001 e Now click on Button 2 shown below to generate the second set of parameters 2 Generate Parameters The simulation time would most likely be less but it depends on the accuracy value as well The parameters generated will be displayed at Parameter 2 e Compare Error 2 to Error 1 the error values should be less which means that the parameters are getting better and more accurate e Repeat the steps in 2a and 2b until a desired set of error values is achieved or the errors stop decreasing EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 149 Auxiliary Programs Step 3 Generating EnergyPlus Input Parameters e Click on the Button 3 shown below to convert and arrange the parameters generated to fit EnergyPlus Input File IDF which will be listed from cell B52 B61 3 Generate E Input Parameters e The button shown below in worksheet ParamEstimator is used for clearing Initial Guess 2 5 Parameters 1 5 Error 1 5 EnergyPlus Input parameters and Result 1 5 in worksheet RESULT Clear Result End Parameter Estimation Procedure Curve Fit Model Procedure Step 2 Generating the coefficients Curve Fit Model e Using the contents of Table 3 the program can generate the coefficients The user must fill all the cells c
64. only classes that contain objects select the show classes with objects only option on the View menu You can also toggle this feature on and off with CTRL L If the file is empty and has no objects this toggle does not impact the display The Show Quick Select Dropdowns option which can also be turned on and off with CTRL Q displays two dropdown lists above the class list that can be quickly used to select classes The first list displays the possible groups Once those are selected the second list contains only the classes within that group This option may be used to quickly access classes while avoiding scrolling through the long class list In addition these pull down menus may be used with the keyboard to select groups and class names based on the first few letters of the names The figure below shows the Layout Options also accessible under the View menu This option allows for different arrangements of the layout for the main screen of the IDF Editor Select one of the four layouts available The Show Quick Select Dropdowns view menu option adds two new input fields to the main screen The input fields can be used to go quickly to different classes in the main list of classes The Validity Check function has replaced and expanded upon the old Check Out of Range function It can also be started by using CTRL R The Validity Check function performs three kinds of validity checks and displays the results as
65. option to upgrade your EnergyPlus input files IDF and IMF to the most recent version see the section Using Older Version Input Files Transition for more information about the Transition program This EP Launch option only works for upgrading input files one version Edit Menu No cutting or pasting is used in this program so the edit menu shows options that duplicate the functions of the Edit Text Editor and Edit IDF Editor buttons In addition the weather file and the postprocessor command file rvi may be opened in the text editor View Menu The View menu see Figure 39 duplicates the options in the View Results area of the main screen see the Looking at the Results section above and allows opening of selected output files You can also open the folders that contain the active input and weather files Opening a single file is under a submenu and is very similar to the Quick Open Panel for Single Simulation described above Selecting HTML File from the View menu will open any user created files saved in the format table html see OutputControl Table Style The View menu also accesses the Options menu item shown in Figure 40 that is used to control many of the optional features of EP Launch These optional features are described below Command Window Options Pause During Simulation Unless Minimized Stops the progress of the EnergyPlus run at different points This does not stop the
66. pole ward of the C climates The warmest month is greater than 10 C while the coldest month is less than 30 C Winters are severe with snowstorms strong winds bitter cold from Continental Polar or Arctic air masses Like the C climates there are three minor types Dw dry winters Ds dry summers and Df wet all seasons Polar Climates E Polar climates have year round cold temperatures with warmest month less than 10 C Polar climates are found on the northern coastal areas of North America and Europe Asia and on the landmasses of Greenland and Antarctica Two minor climate types exist ET or polar tundra is a climate where the soil is permanently EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 40 Auxiliary Programs frozen to depths of hundreds of meters a condition known as permafrost Vegetation is dominated by mosses lichens dwarf trees and scattered woody shrubs EF or polar ice caps has a surface that is permanently covered with snow and ice Highlands Areas H Highland areas can encompass any of the previously mentioned major categories the determining factor is one of altitude temperature decreases roughly 2 C for every increase of 305 m This is a complex climate zone Highland regions roughly correspond to the major categories change in temperature with latitude with one important exception Seasons only exist in highlands if they also exist in the nearby lowland regions For example although A climates have cooler tempe
67. program of your choice but make sure it is capable of opening SVG files The Auto Find button will automatically find the program that is associated with the SVG file extension and use that program Auto Find is invoked the first time EP Launch is started so that a spreadsheet program is available immediately Since both Firefox and Opera web browsers can view SVG files those buttons will select those respective browsers if available HTML Browser Options EP Launch will start a HTML browser program when viewing the tabular results file when HTML is chosen in OutputControl Table Style The HTML browser that will be used is shown but can be changed by either pressing the Select button or by pressing the Auto Find button The Select button allows you to find the HTML browser of your choice The Auto Find button will automatically find the program that is associated with the HTML file extension and use that program Auto Find is invoked the first time EP Launch is started so that a HTML browser is available immediately ESO Viewer Options By default ESO files are opened with a text editor ESO files are the raw output file containing results from EnergyPlus for Report Variable objects They are often processed into CSV files to make it easier to view them At least one utility program has been developed to view ESO files directly see the EnergyPlus gov web site under Interfaces amp Other Tools Third party EnergyPlus Tools The Auto Find and Sel
68. some of the boundary conditions used in the simulation Field EVTR Is surface evapotranspiration modeled This field specifies whether or not to use the evapotransporation model Evapotransportation comprises all of the processes at the ground surface the involve exchanges of latent heat The inclusion of evapotransporation in the calculation has the greatest effect in warm dry climates primarily on the ground surface temperature This field can be used to turn the evapotransporation off and on to check sensitivity to it Field FIXBC is the lower boundary at a fixed temperature This field permits using a fixed temperature at the lower surface of the model instead of a zero heat flux condition This change normally has a very small effect on the results If the flag is set to use a specified temperature the program calculates an undisturbed temperature profile and used the value at the model depth The model depth is set by the program using the domain size from the EquivAutoGrid object below Field TDEEPin The fixed lower level temperature as described in the FIXBC field Field USPHflag Is the ground surface h specified by the user This field flags the use of a user specified heat transfer coefficient on the ground surface This condition is used primarily for testing For normal runs USPHflag is FALSE the program calculates the heat transfer coefficient using the weather conditions EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 83 Auxiliary Programs
69. the Adobe viewer right click anywhere on the drawing Each diagram should be read from left to right which is the direction of the flow of the fluid through the components EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 125 Auxiliary Programs The HVAC Diagram program is automatically called when using EP Launch but can also be included in other batch files To view the drawing in EP Launch click on the drawing button You can zoom in on this drawing and with the copy command paste a zoomed in portion as a bitmap in your document JP a gt MEE t i 3 A o IU A A ee gt pu Oy Be Figure 26 HVAC Diagram SVG Drawing Objects that are recognized by the HVAC diagram are shown in Table 30 sorted by Object Name and Table 31 sorted by color Table 37 HVAC Diagram Object Names primary sort Colors Object Name Color AirLoopHVAC ReturnPlenum lightgreen AirLoopHVAC SupplyPlenum lightgreen AirLoopHVAC ZoneMixer wheat AirLoopHVAC ZoneSplitter wheat AirTerminal DualDuct Constant Volume wheat AirTerminal DualDuct VAV wheat AirTerminal SingleDuct Uncontrolled none AirTerminal SingleDuct VAV NoReheat wheat AirTerminal SingleDuct VAV Reheat wheat Boiler Hot Water indianred EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 126 Auxiliary Programs Object Name Color Chiller Absorption powderblue Chiller Combustion Turbine powderblue Chiller ConstantCOP powderblue Chiller Electric powderblue Chiller Eng
70. the K ppen classification shown here is derived algorithmically from the source weather data B It may not be indicative of the long term climate for this location EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 35 Auxiliary Programs Climate type 3C ASHRAE Standards 90 1 2004 and 90 2 2004 Climate Zone Warm Marine Probable K ppen classification Cs Dry Summer Subtropical Mediterranean Note that the ASHRAE classification shown here is derived algorithmically from the source weather data m It may not be indicative of the long term climate for this location Typical Extreme Period Determination Summer is Jul Sep Extreme Summer Week nearest maximum temperature for summer Extreme Hot Week Period selected Sep 23 Sep 29 Maximum Temp Typical Summer Week nearest average temperature for summer Typical Week Period selected Aug 19 Aug 25 Average Temp 35 10 C Deviation 16 393 C 16 27 C Deviation 0 032 C is Jan Mar Extreme Winter Week nearest minimum temperature for winter Extreme Cold Week Period selected Jan 22 Jan 28 Minimum Temp Typical Winter Week nearest average temperature for winter Typical Week Period selected Mar 5 Mar 11 Average Temp Winter 0 40 C Deviation 8 532 C 10 19 C Deviation 0 417 C Autumn is Oct Dec Spring Typical Autumn Week Typical Week Period is Apr Jun Typical Spring Week nearest selected nearest average temperature for Nov 12 Nov
71. the data each object requires This file is analogous to the DOE 2 keyword file The Guide for Interface Developers contains a full description of the input data dictionary idf The input data file IDF is an ascii file containing the data describing the building and HVAC system to be simulated Many example files are installed as part of the EnergyPlus installation Additionally a spreadsheet file ExampleFiles xls contains columnar descriptions of each file s features imf The input macro file IMF is an ascii file containing the data describing the building and HVAC system to be simulated and will have some contents of macro commands The Auxiliary programs document describes use of the macro commands and the program that processes them EP Macro Many example files are installed as part of the EnergyPlus installation EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 176 Auxiliary Programs e EnergyPlus Crashed e Please Report Crash Send the active EnergyPlus input file named DAT esting 5 onedirCooled idf with a description of any recent changes to energyplus upporttaigard com Indicate in your e mail that you were using wersion About the Crash rau may nat see any error messages in the output files since EnengyPlus may have crashed before the messages were written This condition is often the result of an input value of zero when a non zero number was expected invalid geometry misconnected nodes an invalid component arrangem
72. the face surface temperatures on the outside of the basement wall or the floor slab This is the plane between the outside insulation and the basement wall The insulation ther mal resistance can range from zero no insulation to any reasonable value The units are K W m The program will simulate two conditions full insulation from grade to the footing or half insulation that extends halfway down from grade to footing The temperature on this plane is used with the OtherSideCoefficients object in EnergyPlus to supply the outside face temperature of the walls or slab The output from the program is a csv file named MonthlyResults csv as shown below Column B gives the basement zone temperature This can vary month by month as will be explained later Column C is the monthly average wall outside face temperature as shown in the diagram above Column D is the corresponding average monthly average inside wall face temperature Columns E and F contain the same information for the basement floor slab Columns G J contain the same information for the upper half and the lower half of the basement walls Columns K through N contain the monthly average heat flux for the floor the walls the upper half of the walls and the lower half of the walls The flux is reported in units of W m The program also produces an output file named EPObjects T XT This file contains the necessary idf objects to make it easy to include the wall outside surface tempera
73. to fill data gaps from 6 to 47 hours in length Not used Modeled or estimated except precipitable water calculated from radiosonde data dew point temperature calculated from dry bulb temperature and relative humidity and relative humidity calculated from dry bulb temperature and dew point temperature Precipitable water calculated from surface vapor pressure aerosol optical depth estimated from geographic correlation ih Source does not fit any of the above Used mostly for missing data mUOur nj Table 23 Meteorological Uncertainty Flag Codes Flag Definition 1 6 Not used T Uncertainty consistent with NWS practices and the instrument or observation used to obtain the data 8 Greater uncertainty than 7 because values were interpolated or estimated 9 Greater uncertainty than 8 or unknown 0 Not definable Advanced use accessing weather conversion capabilities Interface to the EPlusWth dll To provide information for outside developers interfaces that might want to use the basic weather processing utility from within their interface the EPlusWth dll was developed It is actually used by the weather converter utility In addition to the basic interface calls six important files are also used by this library These are placed in the WeatherConverter folder during install of EnergyPlus Files used by EPlusWth dll Each of the files is in a general comma delimited format Thus they can be easily viewed by importing into
74. water temperatures and etc that covers the entire range of the heat pump operating conditions Correction tables provided by the manufacturer should be used to extend the catalog data range in order to have a good set of parameters coefficients Using the heat pump performance data enter the values to Table 1 in worksheet CATALOG DATA The values can be in SI or IP units e Click on Button 1 based on the units used For IP units 1 Generate Input from catalog data IP For SI units 1 Generate Input from catalog data S1 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 151 Auxiliary Programs The program will convert the values to the desired units and display them on Table 2 in worksheet INPUT which will be used by the parameter coefficient generator program e The button shown below is used for clearing Table 1 worksheet CATALOG DATA and Table 2 worksheet INPUT It is advisable to clear the tables before generating parameters coefficients for a new heat pump model Clear Previous Catalog Data After Table 2 is created the parameters coefficients are then calculated as follows e Worksheet ParamEstimator is used for generating the parameters for the parameter estimation based model using Nelder Mead Simplex Refer to the steps in the Parameter Estimation Procedure e Worksheet CoeffCalculator is used for calculate the coefficients for the curve fit model using the generalized le
75. will start VRML Viewer when a building drawing is created using the Report Surfaces VRML option in your IDF file The VRML Viewer that will be used is shown but can be changed by either pressing the Select button or by pressing the Auto Find button The Select button allows you to find the VRML Viewer of your choice The Auto Find button will automatically find the program that is associated with the WRL file extension and use that program Auto Find is invoked the first time EP Launch is started so that a VRML Viewer is available immediately Many other VRML Viewers are available Spreadsheet Options EP Launch will start a spreadsheet program when viewing many of the results files The spreadsheet that will be used is shown but can be changed by either pressing the Select button or by pressing the Auto Find button The Select button allows you to find the spreadsheet program of your choice The Auto Find button will automatically find the program that is associated with the CSV file extension and use that program Auto Find is invoked the first time EP Launch is started so that a spreadsheet program is available immediately Diagramming Options EP Launch will start a diagramming program to view SVG files from HVAC Diagram The diagramming program that will be used is shown but can be changed by either pressing the Select button the Auto Find button the Use Firefox button or the Use Opera button The Select button allows you to find the diagramming
76. x y 13 8888888889 Minimum Value of x 22 2222222222 Maximum Value of x 29 4444444444 Minimum Value of y 46 1111111111 Maximum Value of y 0 7875 Minimum Curve Output 1 1725 Maximum Curve Output Temperature Input Unit Type for X Temperature Input Unit Type for Y Dimensionless Output Unit Type Curve Biquadratic HeatPumpiCoolingEIRFTemp Name 0 1566419771 Coefficienti Constant 0 0522807347 Coefficient2 x 0 0017986792 Coefficient3 x 2 0 009523995 Coefficient4 y 0 0002405903 Coefficient5 y 2 0 0001781171 Coefficient6 xxy 13 8888888889 Minimum Value of x 22 2222222222 Maximum Value of x 29 4444444444 Minimum Value of y 46 1111111111 Maximum Value of y 0 8216 Minimum Curve Output 1 3703 Maximum Curve Output Temperature Input Unit Type for X Temperature Input Unit Type for Y Dimensionless Output Unit Type Error Message Reports progress of the curve object generation calculation starting from reading input data to error massage output file errorCurveObjects txt This error message file provides information whether the tool run successfully or not Also points to the step where problem occurred Notes This tool has been tested on Ubuntu 11 using Libre Office and MS Office Macintosh 2011 machines But the button for running the macro may not be imported properly on Ubuntu hence users may have to run the tool manually by selecting ManageCurveFit and SaveC
77. 0 3160 5 6 2 1 0 Direct Normal 5 7 0 5 5 4 8 14 3r 9 21 Diffuse 4485 5123 5691 6743 6867 6329 6017 4178 8803 20 1763 4402 8786 104621059510692102188485 7348 18 23 2 25 3 10 3 2344 2335 2247 2148 1998 1643 1610 5672 6419 7148 7129 6401 5460 3761 of 10692 Wh m on Jul 25 2 7 2 3080 6194 2 1252 2530 Average Hourly Statistics for Direct Normal Solar Radiation Wh m JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec o doc 50notNvnBG o e 10 ilal g 2 I3 14 15 16 17 ss Hg 20 20 22 23 2013 eS 015 rots gis OM SO 501 OO OO Oil alas Oi Dii iSs OA Ara tibi prefe e i Rena IA Ae 011 153 Oil aleyg 015 201 152 85 013226 01523 01 24 onon pune 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Max Hour Min Hour 0 oOooooo 50 220 277 288 303 342 398 326 295 oOoooooo 14 1 0 oOooooo N 246 338 449 467 498 494 487 413 273 ooooo 13 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 38 210 309 424 477 531 537 535 481 433 348 153 8 ooooo 13 1 12 1 14 1 14 1 oooo 162 304 466 554 594 643 666 675 678 621 488 352 103 oooo ooooo 85 239 365 523 653 744 732 730 688 593 447 208 ooooo QUO OO o 279 383 399 438 445 533 537 478 393 186 44
78. 0 326 0 334 0 362 0 368 0 353 0 371 0 365 0 352 0 335 0 320 0 318 taud diffuse 2 608 2 528 2 525 2 345 2 360 2 496 2 395 2 435 2 518 2 545 2 611 2 538 taub Clear Sky Optical Depth for Beam Irradiance taud Clear Sky Optical Depth for Diffuse Irradiance Monthly Solar Irradiance Wh m noon on 21st of month ib beam 879 910 933 918 912 923 903 904 901 887 866 846 id diffuse 79 93 100 124 123 108 118 112 99 90 78 80 ib Clear Sky Noon Beam Normal Irradiance on 21st Day id Clear Sky Noon Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance on 2ist Day Monthly Drybulb and Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperatures C Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Drybulb 0 4 17 8 2i ih 23 3 26 9 28 3 31 5 29 4 29 2 Cost 29 5 225 17 5 Coincident Wetbulb 0 4 1221 13 9 14 4 16 2 17 3 ilf ef 18 4 1372 18 0 16 5 14 0 12 0 Drybulb 2 0 15 8 if 9 19 8 22 5 23 7 25 6 25 3 25 0 2n z dl 25 5 20 0 16 2 Coincident Wetbulb 2 0 12 1 om 13 4 14 4 15 8 16 7 17 3 17 5 imu 15 6 13 5 13 0 Drybulb 5 0 14 6 16 2 176 19 5 deett 22 3 DPI 22 9 DOR 22 6 18 2 15 2 Coincident Wetbulb 5 0 E 12 6 13 0 13 6 15 1 15 8 16 5 16 8 16 6 15 2 13 4 12 5 Drybulb 10 7 13 5 15 0 16 2 17 5 49 th 20 6 21 2 21 5 21 8 20 5 16 8 14 2 Coincident Wetbulb 10 11552 ipia 12 5 1259 14 1 15 1 USE 16 2 16 1 14 9 13 3 im Drybulb 0 4 0 4 Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature Coincident Wetbulb 0 4 0 4 Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 29
79. 0 999 0 999 Excel macro capabilities are used by the interface to convert the text to columns and add the surface names and other headings The modified results are placed on the Results worksheet as shown in Figure 28 A A EE iat View3D 3 2 0 1 0 6 2 Areas 400 480 400 480 3000 3000 3 ViewFactor Southall EastWall NorthyVall WestiWall Floor Root 4 Southall 0 0 078244 0 029324 10 078217 0 407108 0 407106 5 EastWall 0 065204 0 0 065204 0 044282 0 412652 0 412659 6 NorthWall 0 029324 0 078245 0 0 078217 0 40711 0 407105 F Westwall 0 065181 0 044282 0 065181 0 0 412679 0 412677 _8 Floor 0 054281 0 066024 0 054281 0 066029 0 0 759385 L9 Roof 0 054281 0 066025 0 054281 0 066028 0 759385 0 10 Emissivitie 0 999 0 999 0 999 0 999 0 999 0 999 Figure 22 View Factors with Surface Names Inserted The results file information is used to generate a UserViewFactor object for EnergyPlus This object is located in the first column of a new worksheet named UserVFObject This column can simply be copied and inserted into the EnergyPlus idf file If the results sheet does not appear or the program terminates the sheet named View3Dlog or the output file by the same name should be consulted It contains a complete history of the execution Any problem with the input file or the calculations should show up there The extra sheets generated by the VBA macros will be deleted if the program is called with the run button while they are pre
80. 1 field INSFULL Flag Is the wall fully insulated note True for full insulation note False for insulation half way down side wall from grade line SurfaceProps N1 field ALBEDO Surface albedo for No snow conditions note typical value 0 16 N2 field ALBEDO Surface albedo for snow conditions note typical value 0 40 N3 field EPSLN Surface emissivity No Snow note typical value 0 94 N4 field EPSLN Surface emissivity with Snow note typical value 0 86 N5 field VEGHT Surface roughness No snow conditions cm note typical value 6 0 units cm N6 field VEGHT Surface roughness Snow conditions cm note typical value 0 25 units cm A1 field PET Flag Potential evapotranspiration on T F note Typically PET is True BldgData N1 field DWALL Wall thickness note typical value 2 Nunits m N2 field DSLAB Floor slab thickness Nunits m maximum 0 25 N3 field DGRAVXY Width of gravel pit beside basement wall Nunits m N4 field DGRAVZN Gravel depth extending above the floor slab Nunits m N5 field DGRAVZP Gravel depth below the floor slab Nunits m note typical value 0 1 Interior Al Ni N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 field COND Flag Is the basement conditioned note TRUE or FALSE note for EnergyPlus this should be TRUE field HIN Downward convection only heat transfer coefficient units W m2 K field HIN Upward convection only heat transf
81. 10 18 00180 il 13 17 14650 18 99703 17 48425 1 14 17 04291 18 87713 17 00183 1 15 16 92873 18 74895 16 58738 1 16 16 81076 18 61963 16 26915 1 17 16 69609 18 49656 16 06881 1 18 16 59243 18 38671 16 00000 1 19 16 50669 18 29626 16 06741 1 20 16 44276 18 23010 16 26645 1 21 16 40369 18 19161 16 58356 1 22 16 38873 18 18218 16 99714 1 23 16 39435 18 19834 17 47902 1 24 16 41942 18 23298 1799639 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 76 Auxiliary Programs A plot of the daily profiles is shown below Note that the inside temperature change of 4 C produces only a small change in the slab lower face temperature Temperature C Slab with Sinusoidal Inside Temp Figure 13 Daily Temperature Profiles Slab Perim Out Ts m Core Out Ts A Inside Temp The resulting heat fluxes are shown below They can be compared with the fluxes shown above for the constant inside temperature run The changes resulting from a fairly large 4 C daily temperature variation are probably not significant Month Average Perimeter Core Inside Perimeter Heat Flux W m Average Heat Flux W m 1 17 51 16 03 17 86 18 7 30 1 81 2 17 29 15 85 17 68 18 7 96 2 63 3 17 27 16 17 57 18 7 41 2 70 4 18 87 17 77 19 13 20 8 26 4 19 5 19 11 18 16 19 34 20 6 81 3 30 6 19 17 18 34 19 37 20 6 15 3 07 7 20 81 20 07 20 98 22 7 15 4 41 8 21 05 20 36 21 21 22 6 07 3 52 9 21 09 20 38 21 26 22 6 00 3 37 10 21 08 20 19 21 20 22 6 70 3 41 11 19 47 18 45 19 71 20 5
82. 18 Average average temperature for autumn Temp 12 19 C spring Deviation 0 990 C Typical Week Period selected May 13 May 19 Average Temp 13 59 C Deviation 0 018 C As this data is all tab delimited putting in a spreadsheet and displaying is not difficult Monthly Statistics for Dry Bulb temperatures C Mar Jan Feb Apr 4 15 145 112 222 192 Dally Avg Maximum Minimum Maximum Dry Bulb temper Minimum Dry Bulb temperat Figure 6 Monthly Dry Bulb Data in SpreadSheet for graphing And these can be easily used to produce graphs Design Day Calculations Output Using the WMO field or determining it from the WBAN field the Weather Converter performs table look up in the Design Condition files to see if there are recorded design conditions for the subject location If this location is found then design day objects are produced on the resultant design day object ddy extension file ready for inclusion into an EnergyPlus input data file If no design conditions are located then the design day object file will still include a location object for inclusion with EnergyPlus However statistics using the weather file are displayed to the statistics file these can be used to create your own design day definitions but you should read the warning that is issued and take care if your weather file is only a single instance weather data representation The location objects as well as the
83. 1b mol deltaBtu 1b 3 281 3 412 2118 6438 1 8 plus 32 2325 83774250441 0 0001450377 6 93481276005548 1 8987 1 8 10 764961 8 b55555556 646078115385742 00042986 plus 7 686 429925 092902267 062428 2046 67194 35 319837041 264 172 0 176110194261872 0 304785126485827 0 000239005736137667 1 49237004739337E 05 196 86 2 2369 678263 316957210776545 555555555555556 00000 000671968949659 000373574867724868 000526917584820558 000132889924714692 68096514745308E 05 555555555555556 145038 29523 10 764961 16 018 1 0 0208857913669065 0 555555555555556 0 321418310071648 645 89 4 89224766847393E 05 1 1 1 0 00793664091373665 0 000951022349025202 127 13292 196 85 2118 6438 0 097826 7 93664091373665 0 951022349025202 127 13292 1 ONO OOO CO O TE DOTON O OOo Ora 0928939733269818 293083235638921 0283127014102352 52667614683731 000472000059660808 04072 54861322767449 000277TTTTTTTTTTTTS 8 9889415481832 204794053596664 2046 555555555555556 2046 0022046 0004299 OOONONOX JOPPROPOOPOOPO Page 188 Auxiliary Programs person m2 gt person ft2 0 0928939733269818 m2 person gt ft2 person 10 764961 W person gt Btu h person 3 412 m3 person gt ft3 person 35 319837041 m3 hr person gt ft3 hr person 35 319837041 m3 m2 gt ft3 ft2 3 281 m3 hr m2 gt ft3 hr ft2 3 281 m3 hr gt ft3 hr 35 319837041 s m gt s
84. 2 FMT file EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 22 Auxiliary Programs Here s an example of a fixed format used for custom file processing Note that random sky cover is used to facilitate calculating Horizontal IR from Sky that is used in EnergyPlus Also random wind direction is used because the data set does not contain wind direction amp location City Torino Caselle StateProv Country ITA InWM0 160590 InLat 45 18333 InLong 7 65 InElev 282 InTime 1 amp wthdata NumInHour 1 InputFileType CUSTOM aero GA US WAS IPA IE DM PrE EOI FONNT DataElements Month Day Hour DirNorRad DifHorRad DryBulb Wind Speed Relative Humidity DataUnits kJ M2 kJ M2 C m s DataConversionFactors 1 1 1 2777778 2777778 1 1 1 amp miscdata Commentsi Italian Climate Data Set Gianni de Giorgio Comments2 Period of record 1951 1970 SourceData IGDG Data Set amp datacontrol MissingOpaqueSkyCoverAction RANDOM MissingWindDirAction RANDOM Listing 3 DEF file for formatted custom file An example of a free format custom file Here there were several lines of text after the numeric data at the end of the file thus we used the number of records to read parameter rather than hand editing each input file amp location City Beijing StateProv Beijing Country CHN InWM0 545110 InLat 39 92 InLong 116 27 InElev 55 InTime 8 amp miscdata Commentsi China Data Set Zhang Huang amp wt
85. 25 Field InTime This field is the decimal equivalent for the Time Zone value The convention is GMT That is if your time zone is behind GMT time by 6 hours your input would be 6 Field InElev This field is the location elevation in meters Range can be from 300 to 6096 These are the values from EnergyPlus there is no validation of these in the weather converter Field InWMO This field is the WMO World Meterological Organization number for the location Though not validated per se if found in the design conditions auxiliary files the Design Day information can be generated Table 5 Definitions File amp miscdata description amp miscdataField Description Field Name Type String for Comments 1 header Commentsl String String for Comments 2 header Comments2 String EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 15 Auxiliary Programs amp miscdataField Description Field Name Type String for Source Data in Location header SourceData String URL for output OutputURL String Expected Formats for amp miscdata Fields Comments1 Comments2 These are strings After concatenation they become part of the comment header lines in the EPW headers Up to 150 characters each is allowed Field SourceData This string is applied to the Source Data field in the Location Header Up to 60 characters is allowed Field OutputURL When a list of files is being processed one of the outputs that results from the processin
86. 29 14 23 42 36 20 01 21 00 49 35 31 37 35 27 25 33 16 25 39 35 21 01 22520 0 49 32 32 40 35 25 27 36 22 23 41 38 22 01 23 00 53 33 31 38 33 30 31 35 26 24 41 39 23 01 24 00 52 33 35 38 31 26 35 36 33 23 43 43 Max Hour 9 10 9 7 7 5 7 8 5 9 7 10 Min Hour 17 22 20 20 24 14 16 15 14 20 14 7 The program calculated undisturbed ground temperatures Monthly Calculated undisturbed Ground Temperatures C JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 0 5 m de Eos lo 11 5 18 4 M5 OS ME GO Wi Twat T1060 2 0 m AO Month TOP COT TA O AO Uni a lO e lolo Al 4 0 m 12 0 11 4 11 3 11 6 12 4 13 3 14 2 14 8 14 9 14 5 13 8 12 8 These ground temperatures should NOT BE USED in the GroundTemperatures object to compute building floor losses FB The temperatures for 0 5 m depth can be used for GroundTemperatures Surface Ex The temperatures for 4 0 m depth can be used for GroundTemperatures Deep E Calculations use a standard soil diffusivity of 2 3225760E 03 m 2 day As noted in the above statistics calculation the undisturbed ground temperatures calculated by the weather converter should not be used in building losses but are appropriate to be used in the Ground Temperatures Surface and Ground Temperatures Deep objects The reasoning for building losses is that these values are too extreme for the soil under a conditioned building For best results use the Slab or Basement program described in this document to calculate custom monthly average grou
87. 3 58 52 50 49 47 47 49 47 51 53 54 58 55 9 16 43 46 52 55 57 61 63 67 68 71 66 64 59 61 62 64 62 61 59 54 49 44 43 41 10 24 54 60 59 61 65 60 59 63 64 59 54 55 53 55 62 59 56 57 51 45 47 45 46 50 5 22 47 53 48 52 56 53 59 51 48 43 42 42 43 40 39 41 43 40 40 39 41 43 40 40 tl 15 43 41 43 42 50 54 55 51 48 46 45 48 46 46 44 47 48 45 43 42 39 39 38 38 7 23 28 26 27 31 40 37 36 34 32 29 30 26 27 24 24 25 27 27 29 31 30 26 30 26 5 14 37 41 45 50 52 55 58 52 45 38 32 26 19 18 17 16 19 24 27 28 27 29 32 36 7 16 Average Hourly Statistics for Opaque Sky Cover ONODORWNRFRO SOT al OM 2 HOT NS NOT A NOTED BOIS 6 Gle 7 OMS gol 9g SO NOR s elus HOLS SOT 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 57 57 58 57 60 60 58 59 62 61 59 55 49 36 38 39 41 43 46 48 49 51 53 50 46 42 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 41 44 43 49 45 46 49 46 50 43 41 35 33 41 45 43 50 54 52 58 50 46 41 40 40 40 38 34 37 39 45 45 48 44 40 37 35 35 33 28 26 27 31 39 36 35 31 29 26 27 22 21 36 40 44 48 50 54 56 50 43 37 30 25 18 QOO oO o 14 234 429 600 717 805 840 797 716 560 366 187 44 oooor 41 40 41 38 45 52 54 54 42 3
88. 3 dd mm yyyydd mm yyd m y Day month year 13 12 2009 Field DataUnits There should be as many DataUnits entries as DataElement entries These are not generally used but may be used in the future for automatic conversions The exception to this is temperature fields Use f for Fahrenheit k for Kelvin temperatures Note that the DataConversionFactor for this field will be applied prior to conversion Many formats use integer numbers to represent values that are in tenths for example Field DataConversionFactors There should be as many DataConversionFactors entries as DataEle ment entries These factors are multiplicative factors i e the input value is multiplied by this factor and can be used to process input data into the values used in the EPW weather files Field DataMissingValues There should be as many entries though some can be blank as DataElement entries The values entered will override the default missing values from the EPW data dictionary and whereas the defaults may be interpreted as a gt missing value i e gt 999 these values will be exact i e 999 Field InFormat The value in this field should be delimited if you are using a free format data file or specify a Fortran style format statement Field DelimiterChar If you use a delimited format file you need to specify a delimiter character Only a single character may be specified Field DecimalSymbolChar A si
89. 4 00 DAL Ali 5 Through 11 30 For AllDays Until 24 00 19 64 b Through 12 81 For AllDays Until 24 00 19 36 B reduced for brevity compact schedules for MonthlyPerimeterTemp and MonthlyCoreTemp are included Convergence has been gained Description of the Objects in the E SlabGHT IDD These objects also appear in the main Energy IDD file with the prefix GroundHeatTransfer Slab Materials or GroundHeat Transfer Slab Materials Object The materials object gives an overall description of the ground heat transfer model Field NMAT Number of Materials This field specifies the number of different materials that will be used in the model Typically only a ground material and a slab material are used Field Albedo Surface Albedo NoSnow Field Albedo Surface Albedo Snow Two fields specify the albedo value of the surface first for no snow coverage days second for days with snow coverage The albedo is the solar reflectivity of the surface and can vary from 0 05 for blacktop to 0 95 for fresh snow Typical values for North America reported by Bahnfleth range from 0 16 to 0 4 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 81 Auxiliary Programs Field EPSLW Surface Emissivity NoSnow Field EPSLW Surface Emissivity Snow This field specifies the long wavelength thermal emissivity of the ground surface It is primarily important for nighttime radiation to the sky and a value of 0 95 for both snow and no snow is reasona
90. 55 53 54 56 59 62 67 73 T9 81 83 84 84 5 3 3 il pa 74 Monthly Indicators for Precipitation Moisture kPa JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 0 8 eal 0 9 1 0 deal Wind and Wind Chill Heat Index Monthly Statistics for Wind Chill Heat Index temperatures C JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Minimum WC ll jt 6 1 fia 2 2 Day Houri9 09 2 1016 0615 04 5 24 1 23 Average WC 6 T 4 5 5 6 9 7 4 Avg Del WC al 2 5 3 4 4 0 2 3 Hours WC 293 166 258 159 56 10 3 86 358 Maximum HI 27 28 Day Hour 2 1015 11 Average HI 27 28 Avg Del HI 0 0 Hours HI 1 1 WindChill HeatIndex Temps statistics only those different from Air Temps Monthly Wind Direction N 0 or 360 E 90 S 180 W 270 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec North 20 11 6 5 4 3 T 6 9 8 16 27 NorthEast 10 10 6 3 3 2 3 3 5 6 6 13 East 8 8 6 3 2 1 1 3 3 5 9 8 SouthEast 13 T 6 2 1 0 0 0 1 6 i i South 18 10 B 5 3 1 0 al 5 14 14 12 SouthWest iG 6 19 8 5 2 il 6 Y 8 abb 4 West 9 14 31 35 32 59 21 32 22 16 10 5 NorthWest 15 35 18 39 50 33 66 50 49 36 17 15 Monthly Statistics for Wind Speed m s JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Maximum 84 83 84 83 85 83 85 83 83 81 81 80 80 78 75 73 69 68 64 62 62 59 60 56 58 53 59 55 60 56 60 58 65 62 69 67 74 72 76 75 78 TT 80 80 81 81 83 82 4 1 3 13 1 lec disc 4 86 86 87 87 88 88 84 TI 71 67 60 57 55 55 57 61 63 69 75 7
91. 74 1 96 12 19 2 17 92 19 51 20 7 70 2 96 Slab configuration Drawing The slab configuration used in the slab model is a slab in grade model That is the slab top surface is assumed level with the outside earth surface If a slab on grade configuration having the bottom surface of the slab level with the outside earth surface is desired the best approximation is to use the EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 77 Auxiliary Programs horizontal insulation configuration The edge of the slab will have a small thermal resistance due to the two dimensional path through the earth but the effect is small In any case uninsulated slab edges are certainly not recommended in cold climates Ground level Horizontal Insulation Vertical Insulation Figure 14 Slab in grade illustration Running the Slab Program EP Launch can be used to run the Slab program using two different methods If the Slab objects see Description of the Objects in the E SIabGHT IDD are located in the standard EnergyPlus IDF input file than the Single Input File and Group of Input File tabs of EP Launch can be used and the Slab preprocessor will be called automatically during the simulation process In this case the Slab objects should all appear with the object name starting with GroundHeatTransfer Slab This option also requires a GroundHeat Transfer Control object in the EnergyPlus idf file see Input Output Reference If the
92. 8 35 33 30 2 27 26 31 33 36 37 38 40 38 41 7 16 35 36 36 34 36 41 45 46 36 32 31 26 23 ooooo 11x Radiation Wh m oo0oooo 47 330 520 684 790 786 735 613 445 252 OIDO 42 51 55 59 65 64 63 62 59 43 33 25 25 22 20 20 21 22 18 18 19 27 32 39 19 38 46 51 57 62 57 52 52 47 34 25 16 15 ooooo 12 Ooooooo 00 122 269 368 486 531 589 528 433 292 131 ooooo o 31 33 30 30 33 39 41 42 44 40 37 36 35 34 31 32 27 29 26 25 27 26 27 26 20 26 30 27 28 30 37 39 40 43 38 36 34 30 ooooo 13 Ooooooo o 47 164 277 382 425 401 381 269 170 15 Ooooooo 49 45 46 46 49 54 55 52 49 44 46 42 39 41 43 46 46 46 46 4T 44 46 44 46 13 44 43 43 45 4T 51 52 49 48 43 45 38 37 CO orm 13 Ev pd 00 o 108 222 306 367 373 336 239 135 OUO Lo OU 42 40 43 44 43 38 38 43 50 50 52 49 50 48 44 43 44 45 42 41 42 45 44 49 11 36 35 37 37 35 33 32 38 43 44 44 41 43 Page 34 Auxiliary Programs 13 01 14 00 46 41 34 38 34 18 15 20 13 30 36 40 14 01 15 00 45 40 37 37 32 20 15 18 13 27 40 42 15 01 16 00 44 39 37 39 33 22 13 19 14 29 42 39 16 01 17 00 41 40 36 41 36 24 16 24 16 25 44 39 17 01 18 00 46 39 38 38 34 24 21 22 16 27 42 40 18 01 19 00 44 40 30 38 36 24 25 26 14 24 42 36 19 01 20 00 45 37 27 36 36 27 26
93. 9 82 83 84 84 6 3 T 72 1 3 TO me AO elo e los io pl alejo lao 210 8 73 74 79 84 81 81 85 82 81 85 82 82 85 83 83 85 83 83 85 83 83 82 83 83 78 78 79 TA 74 74 65 70 70 59 65 66 54 60 63 52 55 59 54 56 61 56 58 62 58 59 64 63 64 67 67 69 70 73 73 73 76 75 74 78 77 76 79 78 TT 81 79 78 82 80 80 5 5 7 3 13 13 1 442 asi M8 9 0 e 27 0427 0428 04 8 8 13 4 84 85 86 85 86 86 86 86 82 79 76 73 71 68 67 69 74 76 76 TT 78 79 82 82 7 5 8 Day Hour 29 1210 22 2 15 9 1610 1710 16 4 1629 1411 1522 19 3 1027 13 Minimum 0 Day Hour ORO 0 O EnergyPlus Version 8 2 0 O 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 1 04 1 10 4 04 4 19 8 0517 07 1 07 1 07 1 07 3 04 2 01 2 03 0 0 0 0 O Page 32 Auxiliary Programs Daily Avg DIN 3 5 Maximum Wind Speed of Minimum Wind Speed of Rain Albedo Monthly Statistics for Liquid Precipitation mm JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Total 47 0 3 5 1 4 8 6 5 17 0 m s on Mar 0 0 m s on Jan 24 22 Monthly Statistics for Albedo JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Average 0 1600 0000 1300 1300 1300 1400 0000 0000 Solar Radiation 0 Monthly Statistics for Solar Radiation JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Direct Avg 2537 Direct Max 5405 Day 27 Diffuse Avg1127 Global Avg 2136 Maximum Direct Normal Solar 3829 7987 18 130
94. 9 22 00 2 82 6 02 2 08 11 19 64 18 63 19 88 20 00 1522 4 63 0 42 12 19 36 18 14 19 65 20 00 2 16 6 30 118 OTHER SIDE COEFFICIENT OBJECT EXAMPLE FOR IDF FILE SurfaceProperty OtherSideCoefficients Example0SC OtherSideCoeff Name CHANGE THIS 0 Combined convective radiative film coefficient P N2 User selected Constant Temperature C b Coefficient modifying the user selected constant temperature 5 Coefficient modifying the external dry bulb temperature o Coefficient modifying the ground temperature Coefficient modifying the wind speed term s m 5 Coefficient modifying the zone air temperature part of the equation GroundTempCompactSchedName Name of Schedule for values of const temperature Schedule values replace N2 REPLACE WITH CORRECT NAME oooorr Schedule Compact MonthlyAveSurfaceTemp Name Temperature ScheduleType Through 1 93 For AllDays Until 24 00 17 74 5 Through 2 28 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 80 Auxiliary Programs For AllDays Until 24 00 17 49 b Through 3 31 For AllDays Until 24 00 17 45 b Through 4 30 For AllDays Until 24 00 18 96 5 Through 5 31 For AllDays Until 24 00 19 22 5 Through 6 30 For AllDays Until 24 00 19 28 b Through 73 For AllDays Until 24 00 20 83 bh Through 8 31 For AllDays Until 24 00 21 12 b Through 9 30 For AllDays Until 24 00 21 18 5 Through 10 31 For AllDays Until 2
95. ACE SUBROUTINE SetFixOutOfRangeData YesNo CHARACTER len INTENT IN YesNo yes to set fixing option no to not END SUBROUTINE END INTERFACE And then calling it CALL SetFixOutOfRangeData no SetDefaultChgLimit This call sets the value for the DB trigger shown earlier Both values passed in are strings and are specific to the dialog shown earlier Table 24 Trigger Limit Call Values Trigger Limit Result Ignore Calc Trigger Result 0 use only calculated trigger 0 Uses Calculated Trigger 1 use 5C 1 Ignores calculated trigger 2 use 10C 3 use 15C You can also choose to ignore the calculated trigger entirely If you do not ignore the calculated trigger then the trigger is the minimum of the calculated and your trigger limit selection VB Declaration Statement Private Declare Sub SetDefaultChgLimit Lib EPlusWth ByVal strValue As String ByVal strValueLen As Long ByVal strValue As String ByVal strValueLen As Long And a call from VB Call SetDefaultChgLimit TriggerLimit Len TriggerLimit IgnoreCalcTrigger Len IgnoreCalcTrigger ProcessWeather The meat of the processing is done by this routine It gets passed the input file name source data the input file type output file name and output file type As an output it can provide a notice that the processing was successful or not VB Declaration Statement Private Declare Sub ProcessWeather Lib EPlusWth ByVal strInType As String ByV
96. Auxiliary Programs Drybulb 2 0 2 Coincident Wetbulb 2 0 2 Drybulb 5 0 5 Coincident Wetbulb 5 0 5 Drybulb 10 1 Coincident Wetbulb 10 1 0 Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature 0 Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature 0 Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature 0 Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature 0 Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature 0 Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature Monthly Drybulb and Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperatures C JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Drybulb Coincident Wetbulb Drybulb Coincident Wetbulb 2 0 12 Drybulb 5 0 14 Coincident Wetbulb 5 0 11 Drybulb 10 13 Coincident Wetbulb 10 11 4 17 8 24127 NO ale NNNOO i00g00n 20 n Drybulb 0 4 0 4 Coincident Wetbulb 0 4 0 4 Drybulb 2 0 2 0 Coincident Wetbulb 2 0 2 0 Drybulb 5 0 5 0 Coincident Wetbulb 5 0 5 0 Drybulb 10 10 7 Coincident Wetbulb 10 10 7 Or if the weather converter must Pile dl Dass ADO Aas Silo BOs Pe 3T 129 502 2 I AO 13 9 14 4 16 2 17 3 17 7 18 4 18 2 18 0 16 5 14 0 12 9 1112911978722 5 2387 25 6 25 3 25 0 27 51 25 5 20710 1652 MA Wea Whoa Moy ey MAS UD Wie McG dest Tes NGA AS Uo Ailoil Bos BP 2A DUO GAG WI Woe 12 6 13 0 13 6 15 1 15 8 16 5 16 8 16 6 15 2 13 4 12 5 MSO Mise Uys Uo 2040 212821 52 1 9920 bM 108 142 121 MAG 12 8 dit aoa MSE 10 2 16 1 14 0 des lo Monthly Design Drybulb Temperature Monthly Mean Coincident Wetbulb Temperature
97. Auxiliary Programs EnergyPlus Version 8 2 September 27 2013 Documentation content copyright O 1996 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and the Regents of the University of California through the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory All rights reserved EnergyPlus is a trademark of the US Department of Energy This documentation is made available under the EnergyPlus Open Source License v1 0 Contents Auxiliary EnergyPlus Programs 4 99 34 24 E Gu Ree 4 Auxiliary Programs Introduction 4 Weather Converter Program 2 acca a rn 5 Background ety aaa PEU a a a M 3 ES TVA EE EAS 5 Weather Format for Simulation Programs e 6 Weather Data Availability ns 7 Using the Weather Converter oasa 8 Definitions File amp Custom File Processing rs 14 Reports Files Produced by the Weather Converter a 28 K ppen Climate Classification ss 39 ASHRAE Climate Classification kE Ee a EER e i d 41 EnergyPlus Weather File EPW Data Dictionary ooo a 41 EPW CSV Form t In Out soe setenau a i eae a eee ee ee E Ed 54 Missing Weather File Data catala a octo WR RE eu PS A SS Sm 56 Source Weather Data Formats eA 57 Data Sources Uncertainty 4 i vo Yo dd dd AA De es 66 Advanced use accessing weather conversion capabilities llle 68 References se i moms e ede sU UR OE Ow RR GRE GU FUE quem EU Y WV CURRO e 72 Web Resource
98. C Data File Samson or dat SAMSON Data File wyec2 or wy2 WYEC2 Data File Fmt or txt DOE 2 FMT File Clm or esp r ESP r Formatted CLM data file Blast or asc BLAST ASCII Data File EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 16 Auxiliary Programs Value File Type Description Tmy TMY Data File Epw EPW Data File Csv EPW CSV Data File Wea Ecotect wea Data File Swera or swe SWERA Data File Custom or User Custom Data File Field NumInHour This field can be used to specify multi interval per hour files Without this field the only formats that can have multiple intervals per hour are the EPW and CSV file formats using the header record DataPeriods value for that field Fields below only used in Custom format processing Field DataElements For custom files you will need to indicate which data elements are in which positions of the raw data file The fields must come from a standardized list of names see following tables that include internal names short and long as shown in Table 8 as well as the EnergyPlus CSV format names short and long shown in Table 9 plus some further elements that can be specified when the standard data elements are not part of the raw data as shown in Table 10 Ignore is used to skip a raw data field that is not applicable to the weather converter formats Note that variables listed in the following table in italics are allowed for flexibility i e wetbulb temperature can be used to determine relati
99. Carolina National Climatic Data Center U S Department of Commerce National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL 1995 User s Manual for TMY2s Typical Meteorological Years NREL SP 463 7668 and TMY2s Typical Meteorological Years Derived from the 1961 1990 National Solar Radiation Data Base June 1995 CD ROM Golden Colorado National Renewable Energy Laboratory http rredc nrel gov solar pubs tmy2 Numerical Logics 1999 Canadian Weather for Energy Calculations Users Manual and CD ROM Downsview Ontario Environment Canada Oliver John E 1991 The History Status and Future of Climatic Classification in Physical Geography 1991 Vol 12 No 3 pp 231 251 Perez R Ineichen P Maxwell E Seals R and Zelenka A 1992 Dynamic Global to Direct Irradiance Conversion Models ASHRAE Transactions Research Series 354 369 Perez R Ineichen P Seals R Michalsky J and Stewart R 1990 Modeling daylight availability and irradiance components from direct and global irradiance Solar Energy 44 271 289 University of Illinois 1998 BLAST User s Guide Building Systems Laboratory University of Illinois Urbana Illinois University of Illinois Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering Ward G 1996 Radiance Berkeley Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Winkelmann F C W F Buhl B Birdsall A E Erdem and K Ellington 1994 DOE 2 1E Supplement DE 940 11218 Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Berkeley Californ
100. Complex Field 35 18 Complex Field 36 Through 10 31 Complex Field 37 For AllDays Complex Field 38 Until 24 00 Complex Field 39 abf a Complex Field 40 Through 11 30 Complex Field 41 For AllDays Complex Field 42 Until 24 00 Complex Field 43 16 Complex Field 44 Through 12 31 Complex Field 45 For AllDays Complex Field 46 Until 24 00 Complex Field 47 16 Complex Field 48 References Bahnfleth W P 1989 Three Dimensional Modeling of Heat Transfer from Slab Floors Ph D dissertation also published as USACERL TM E 89 11 University of Illinois Bahnfleth W P and C O Pedersen 1990 A Three Dimensional Numerical Study of Slab on Grade Heat Transfer ASHRAE Transactions Pt 2 96 61 72 Clements Edward 2004 Three Dimensional Foundation Heat Transfer Modules for Whole Building Energy Analysis MS Thesis Pennsylvania State University Cogil Cynthia A 1998 Modeling of Basement Heat Transfer and Parametric Study of Basement Insulation for Low Energy Housing MS Thesis of Architectural Engineering Pennsylvania State University EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 105 Auxiliary Programs View Factor Calculation Program EnergyPlus has the capability of accepting user defined view factors for special research situations This option is not recommended for general use because the normal approximate view factor determination within EnergyPlus accounts for such practical thing
101. GTON Location Washington DC Location Name ono Latitude 77 0 Longitude 5505 Time Zone 15 5 Elevation m else ERROR City Undefined endif Then the EnergyPlus input set1 city CHICAGO include cities idf will be converted after macro processing to Location Chicago IL Location Name 41 880 Latitude 87 63 Longitude 6 0 Time Zone DE Elevation m Listing Format The format of listing from EP MACRO gives information about the status of the input macros as shown in the following ig Gosh es WAS Oe 1 5559 EnergyPlus input line line number if the current line is being skipped by sif etc this is indicated by printing 123 instead of 123 in the line number field if the current line is part of a macro command it is indicated by printing 123 macro expansion nesting level if nesting level include nesting level HVAC Diagram Introduction The HVAC Diagram program is a simple utility that can be used to generate a svg file based on the bnd file generated by EnergyPlus It is a stored in the primary EnergyPlus PostProcessor folder upon installation It creates a series of diagrams for the layout of the HVAC system components The SVG file can be viewed with a number of internet browser plug ins such as produced by Adobe that can be downloaded at www adobe com svg To get help within
102. Handbook of Fundamentals 2009 are contained in the weather files These condi tions can be used as desired In addition Design Day definition files have been created of all World Canada and United States Design Conditions These files are available in the DataSet folder of the EnergyPlus installation TYPICAL EXTREME PERIODS Ni field Number of Typical Extreme Periods A1 field Typical Extreme Period 1 Name A2 field Typical Extreme Period 1 Type A3 field Period 1 Start Day A4 field Period 1 End Day note repeat A1 A3 until number of typical periods etc to of periods entered Using a heuristic method the weather converter can determine typical and extreme weather periods for full year weather files These will then be shown on the Typical Extreme Periods header record These are also reported in the statistical report output from the Weather Converter GROUND TEMPERATURES Ni Number of Ground Temperature Depths N2 field Ground Temperature Depth 1 Nunits m N3 field Depth 1 Soil Conductivity Nunits W m K N4 field Depth 1 Soil Density units kg m3 N5 field Depth 1 Soil Specific Heat Nunits J kg K N6 field Depth 1 January Average Ground Temperature units C N7 field Depth 1 February Average Ground Temperature units C EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 44 Auxiliary Programs N8 field Depth 1 March Average Ground Temperature units C N9 field Depth 1 April Average Ground Temperature units C
103. N10 field Depth 1 May Average Ground Temperature units C N11 field Depth 1 June Average Ground Temperature units C N12 field Depth 1 July Average Ground Temperature units C N13 field Depth 1 August Average Ground Temperature units C N14 field Depth 1 September Average Ground Temperature units C N15 field Depth 1 October Average Ground Temperature units C N16 field Depth 1 November Average Ground Temperature units C N17 field Depth 1 December Average Ground Temperature units C note repeat above N2 N17 to number of ground temp depths indicated etc to of depths entered The weather converter program can use a full year weather data file to calculate undisturbed ground temperatures based on temperatures Since an important part of soil heat transfer includes soil proper ties such as conductivity density and specific heat AND these cannot be calculated from simple weather observations this header record is provided primarilyfor user information However with the FC construc tion option these are automatically selected 5 depth for use if the user does not include values in the Site GroundTemperature FcfactorMethod object As noted in the statistics report the undisturbed ground temperatures calculated by the weather converter should not be used in building losses but are appropriate to be used in the GroundTemperatures Surface and Ground Temperatures Deep objects The reasoning for build ing
104. Number of cells in the Y direction 20 N3 field NZAG Number of cells in the Z direction above grade 4 Always N4 field NZBG Number of cells in Z dir below grade 10 35 N5 field IBASE X direction cell indicator of slab edge 5 20 N6 field JBASE Y direction cell indicator of slab edge 5 20 N7 field KBASE Z direction cell indicator of the top of the floor slab 5 20 XFACE NOTE This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended XFACE X Direction cell face coordinates m Ni N2 N3 N4 N5 NG N7 N8 N9 N10 N11 N12 N13 N14 N15 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 N27 N28 N29 N30 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40 N41 N42 N43 N44 YFACE NOTE This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 95 Auxiliary Programs YFACE Y Direction cell face coordinates m NIS N20 NS NAS END NG NIC NS NOSO ONLO ONID NED NIS NIA N15 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 N27 N28 N29 N30 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40 N41 N42 N43 N44 ZFACE NOTE This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended ZFACE Z Direction cell face coordinates m Nil N2i NS NAS NGS NG Ni NS NO NO NIL N12 NS Na N15 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 N27 N28 N29 N30 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40
105. Numbered weekday of month Holiday Last Weekday In Month Last weekday of month Holiday DaylightSavingPeriod In the table Month can be one of January February March April May June July August September October November December Abbreviations of the first three characters are also valid In the table Weekday can be one of Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Abbreviations of the first three characters are also valid ESP r EnergyPlus Weather Format April 2002 memo Dates in the EPW file can be several formats memo lt number gt lt number gt month day memo lt number gt Month memo Month lt number gt memo lt number gt taken to be Julian day of year memo Months are January February March April May memo June July August September October November December memo Months can be the first 3 letters of the month LOCATION A1 field city type alpha A2 field State Province Region type alpha A3 field Country type alpha A4 field Source type alpha N1 field WMO note usually a 6 digit field Used as alpha in EnergyPlus type alpha N2 field Latitude units deg minimum 90 0 maximum 90 0 default 0 0 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 43 Auxiliary Programs note is North is South degree minutes represented in decimal i e 30 minutes is 5 Ntype real N3 field Longitude units deg minimum 180 0 maximum 180 0 default 0 0 not
106. OK from this box selecting ERR EIO BND Output Files Only from the View menu will display the ERR EIO and BND files useful when errors may have occurred Alternatively pressing the F2 function key will display the same three files EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 161 Auxiliary Programs Another way to open files easily is by using the View Results buttons as shown in 29 Two different panels of buttons can be used under View Results one shown by using the All tab on the left edge and by using the Sets tab on the left edge The All tab shows all the various files by file extension that can be viewed individually Files available for view based on the current input file name are enabled extension names clearly readable e EP Launch Single Input File Group of Input Files History Utilities m Input File C EnergyPlus 5 0 0 fix E ampleFiles amp one amp irCooled idf m Browse Edit Text Editor Edit IDF Editor Weather File C EnergyPlus 5 0 0 fix WeatherD ataXLISA IL Chicago DOHare Intl AP 725300 TMY 3 epw Browse a Spreadsheets HTML Set 2 Set 6 Gars Set Set 8 Define Simulate EnergyPlus 6 0 0 002 Figure 31 EP Launch with the Sets tab of View Results The figure above shows the same main screen of EP Launch but with the Sets tab selected on the left edge of the View Results section The but
107. Other Node Names can be shortened very quickly The last option Class or Field shows a hierarchical list on the right side titled Filter by Object or Field containing the list of classes and fields that can have node names By selecting an object or a field the Other Node Names list on the right shows only node names that are present in the selected object or field EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 192 Auxiliary Programs This is another way of quickly shortening the list of Other Node Names so that the appropriate node name can be selected Finally the Containing Text field just above the OK button can be typed in Whatever you type limits the Other Node Names list to just those characters The more typed the shorter the list becomes This is another method of quickly finding the node name used in other parts of the file The Containing Text field is usually used with the All option but can be used with the other display options as well Working with Objects To delete an object first click on any value for the object and then click on the Del Obj button To add a new object click on the New Obj button and a new object column with fields set to blanks zeros or default values will be added to the far right of the grid The Dup Obj button is similar to New Obj but copies the values of the fields of the currently selected object Copying and pasting an object or groups of objects is also possible using the Copy Obj a
108. Programs The utility consists of two parts a user interface that executes on standard Wintel systems and a DLL that does the work of the processing The DLL interface is described in a later section for those developers who might wish to access it directly The user front end is a simple to use program with standard graphical user interface menus It is executed from the Start Menu programs using the specific folder where the EnergyPlus program was installed e g Start Menu EnergyPlus WeatherConverter For convenience it automatically opens with the convert option EP Launch can also be used to run the weather utility program Weather is one of the options on the Utilities tab in EP Launch See the section on EP Launch in this document for more information on how to use EP Launch with the weather utility program ini xj Ele Convert Data Help Si Convert Data zz lani x Input Weather f Select File to Convert Data File o HEN Type Override Default Type Figure 1 Main menu screen of the Weather Converter Utility File Menu The file menu has four options Fix Out of Range Data This is a toggle option that once selected is saved in the registry with other options for example screen size for the program As shown in the IDD type description of the Weather EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 9 Auxiliary Programs Data there are minimum and maximum values for several of the fields The weather converte
109. T input files this program will produce the bulk of a translation to EnergyPlus for you It generates a complete IDF file but does not include specifics for Systems or Plants It does include the System and Plant schedules that were in the BLAST deck Many of the sample files included with the install started out as BLAST input files DOE 2 Translator if you already have DOE 2 1e input files this program will produce the bulk of a translation to EnergyPlus for you It generates a IMF input macro file that must be run through the EnergyPlus Macro EPMacro program before it can be used by EnergyPlus Hand editing for simple changes to an existing file such as one of the sample files you can hand edit a file using your knowledge of the IDD comments in the IDF file and a text editor such as NOTEPAD Wordpad for large files For creating HVAC simulations the HVACtemplate objects provide a quick way to start at HVAC simulation IDD Conventions The following is a basic description of the structure of the IDD it s actually taken directly from the IDD file As noted within signifies a comment character as does the V has also been adopted as a convention for including more specific comments about each field in an object These have been used with success in the IDFEditor and it is hoped the flexibility will provide other interface developers with useful information Object Description To define an object a record with dat
110. This is the Global Horizontal Illuminance in lux Average total amount of direct and diffuse illuminance in hundreds of lux received on a horizontal surface during the number of minutes preceding the time indicated It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 999999 and will be considered missing of gt 999900 Field Direct Normal Illuminance This is the Direct Normal Illuminance in lux Average amount of illuminance in hundreds of lux received directly from the solar disk on a surface perpendicular to the sun s rays during the number of minutes preceding the time indicated It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 999999 and will be considered missing of gt 999900 Field Diffuse Horizontal Illuminance This is the Diffuse Horizontal Illuminance in lux Average amount of illuminance in hundreds of lux received from the sky excluding the solar disk on a horizontal surface during the number of minutes preceding the time indicated It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 999999 and will be considered missing of gt 999900 Field Zenith Luminance This is the Zenith Illuminance in Cd m Average amount of luminance at the sky s zenith in tens of Cd m2 during the number of minutes preceding the time indic
111. Version 8 2 Page 119 Auxiliary Programs Notes macro name is explained in section Defining Blocks of Input below condition is 0 or BLANK meaning FALSE and any other character meaning TRUE ifdef and ifndef do not have corre sponding elseif commands but they do have corresponding 7 else and fendif commands Defining Blocks of Input The def command allows a block of input text to be defined and given a name The block of text can then be inserted anywhere in the EnergyPlus input stream by simply referencing the name of the block This process is called macro expansion The block can have parameters also called arguments that can be given different values each time the block is referenced The syntax of the 7 def command is as follows unique name zero or more arguments __ macro text l def macro name argi arg2 arg3 text line 1 lis MI lle 2 l 1 Eo e __ one 1 l d or zero one zero space s more or or or or comma spaces more more more spaces spaces spaces Example Define a schedule macro with name All Const def A11 Const x Fraction WeekON 1 1 12 31 WEEKSCHEDULE WeekON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DAYSCHEDULE DayON Fraction eo E me pero re pases E A E E S enddef Then in the EnergyPlus input stream file in imf when we write SCHEDULE Constant At 0 8 All_Const 0 8 the re
112. a develop a key word that is unique Each data item to the object can be A Alphanumeric string or N numeric Number each A and N This will show how the data items will be put into the arrays that are passed to the Input Processor Get GetObjectItem routines All alpha fields are limited to 100 characters Numeric fields should be valid numerics can include such as 1 0E 05 and are placed into double precision variables NOTE Even though a field may be optional a comma representing that field must be included unless it is the last field in the object Since the entire input is field oriented and not keyword oriented the EnergyPlus Input Processor must have some representation even if blank for each field Object Documentation In addition the following special comments appear one per line and most are followed by a value Comments may apply to a field or the object or a group of objects field Name of field Field level comments should be succinct and readable blanks are encouraged EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 185 Auxiliary Programs note Note describing the field and its valid values required field To flag fields which may not be left blank this comment has no value begin extensible Marks the first field at which the object accepts an extensible field set A fixed number of fields from this marker define the extensible field set see the object code extensible for
113. a spreadsheet program such as Excel The files are used to support information lacking in the source data files and or supply additional information used during the conversion process In each case with one exception there will be a single or set of header records describing each column of the file and then the data values of the file will follow on subsequent records Each of the files is described briefly in the next few sections Abbreviations csv This file does not have a header record but it consists of 3 columns It is used for data files that might have 2 character abbreviations for US States or Canadian provinces and provides a translation to the full name and 3 character country code Likewise it can use the full name of these items to obtain the 2 character abbreviation or 3 character country code WBANLocations csv In many older data sets the station identifier for the weather data uses the WBAN Weather Bureau Army Navy designation system This has largely been superseded by the WMO World EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 68 Auxiliary Programs Meteorological Organization designation for station collection site identifiers This file provides a translation between the two identifier systems In addition this file contains latitude longitude time zone and elevation information for the sites Cal Climate Zone Lat Long data csv Note that this file has spaces in the name The California climate zone data source files do not ha
114. able The Copy button allows the current graph as it is sized in the window to be copied to another application such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint To paste a copied image to those programs use the Paste Special option and select one of the bitmap formats EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 200
115. able Dictionary appears in the input IDF file eplusout dbg This is a text file containing debug output for use by EnergyPlus developers Generally developers will add debug print statements wherever in the code that that they wish There is a standard debug output that prints out conditions at all the HVAC nodes This output is triggered by placing DEBUG OUTPUT 1 in the IDF file If DEBUG OUTPUT 0 is entered you will get an empty eplusout dbg file eplusout dxf This is a file in AutoCad DXF format showing all the surfaces defined in the IDF file It provides a means of viewing the building geometry The DXF file from EnergyPlus highlights different building elements shading walls subsurfaces in differing colors A number of programs can read and display DXF files One that works well is Volo View Express available free from the Autodesk web site Output of this file is triggered by Report Surfaces DXF in the IDF eplusout sln A text file containing the coordinates of the vertices of the surfaces in the IDF Output of this file is triggered by Report Surfaces Lines in the IDF Postprocessing Program Files A postprocessing program Read VarsESO exe is available that will read an ESO or MTR file and produce a file that can be read by Excel It can use an input file or not In batch mode it is run by the little batch file RunReadESO bat Further information on this program is provided in the Input Output Refer
116. al InTypeLen As Long ByVal str utType As String ByVal OutTypeLen As Long ByVal strInFileName As String ByVal InFileNameLen As Long ByVal str utFileName As String ByVal OutFileNameLen As Long ErrorFlag As Boolean Optional ByVal str utFileURL As String Optional ByVal OutFileURLlen As Long EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 70 Auxiliary Programs Calling it from VB Call ProcessWeather InputFileDataType Len InputFileDataType InputFileName Len InputFileName OutputFileDataType ErrorFlag OutputFileDataType Len OutputFileName Len OutputFileName Valid values for the Input File Data Type are shown in the following table Table 25 Valid Input File Types for ProcessWeather call Input File Type Source Data file Format Type TMY2 or TM2 IWEC or IWC SAMSON or DAT WYEC2 or WY2 FMT or TXT CLM or ESP r BLAST or ASC EPW CSV TMY WEA SWERA or SWE TMY2 data file IWEC data file SAMSON data file WYEC2 data file DOE 2 Formatted data file ESP r formatted data file BLAST ASCII formatted data file EnergyPlus EPW file EnergyPlus CSV file TMY data files Eco Tect WEA files SWERA data files Custom must have def file Valid values for the Output File Type s are shown in the following table Table 26 Valid Output File Types for the ProcessWeather call Output File Type File s produced EPW CSV BOTH RPT EPW and RPT files CSV and RPT files EPW CSV and RPT files RPT
117. al catalog data points are displayed in worksheet RESULT e The button shown below in worksheet CoeffCalculator is used for clearing the coefficients the error analysis and the outputs in worksheet RESULT Clear Result i End Curve Fit Model Procedure Water to Air Heat Pump Parameter Coefficient Generator Cooling This document gives brief instructions on generating the parameters or coefficients for the water to air heat pump models in cooling mode The Excel spreadsheets WaterAir_PE_Cooling xls are used The spreadsheet generates e parameters for the parameter estimation based model e coefficients for the curve fit model The following theses have detailed information about the curve fit model and parameter estimation based model Jin Hui 2002 Parameter Estimation Based Models of Water Source Heat Pumps Phd Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Shenoy Arun 2004 Simulation Modeling and Analysis of Water to Air Heat Pump M S Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Tang C C 2004 Modeling Packaged Heat Pumps in a Quasi Steady State Energy Simulation Program M S Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 147 Auxil
118. alGrid e GroundHeatTransfer Slab XFACE e GroundHeat Transfer Slab YFACE e GroundHeatTransfer Slab ZFACE e GroundHeat Transfer Basement SimParameters e GroundHeat Transfer Basement MatlProps e GroundHeatTransfer Basement Insulation e GroundHeat Transfer Basement SurfaceProps e GroundHeat Transfer Basement BldgData e GroundHeat Transfer Basement Interior e GroundHeat Transfer Basement ComBldg EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 132 Auxiliary Programs e GroundHeat Iransfer Basement EquivSlab e GroundHeat Transfer Basement Equiv AutoGrid e GroundHeat Transfer Basement AutoGrid e GroundHeat Transfer Basement ManualGrid e GroundHeat Iransfer Basement XFACE e GroundHeat Iransfer Basement YFACE e GroundHeat Transfer Basement ZFACEHVA CTemplate Thermostat Building Surface Objects Processed The building surface objects that are currently modified by the ExpandObjects preprocessor are BuildingSurface Detailed e Wall Detailed e RoofCeiling Detailed e Floor Detailed e Site GroundTemperature BuildingSurface CS Vproc This simple post processing utility may be useful when doing parametric analyses It takes a CSV comma separated values file and performs some simple statistics It is a very small application with no interface It is typically executed from the command line 1 Open a DOS command prompt window Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt 2 Change to the directory where EnergyPlus
119. also describes a file format Though no data from the SAMSON data set are available for download in EPW format the weather conversion utility can read and process this file format TMY2 Data Set Format The TMY2 are data sets of hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological elements for a 1 year period Their intended use is for computer simulations of solar energy conversion systems and building systems to facilitate performance comparisons of different system types configurations and locations in the United States and its territories Because they represent typical rather than extreme conditions they are not suited for designing systems to meet the worst case conditions occurring at a location The data are available from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for download or on CD EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 57 Auxiliary Programs Location Latitude Longitud Herrin Elevation ColdestM Design Data 2009 Winter Week Nearest Average Min Temperat Temperat Temperat ure For ure For ure For Period Extreme 6 Jul 12 Jul Period eri ia Daylight Saving e End Da Figure 11 EnergyPlus EPW CSV file spreadsheet view EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 58 Auxiliary Programs repeat DP Start DP End to Data Da Da Periods n Week la man DNE UN DEus TEE Temperat Temperat i im ini from Sky Ce re C jure C umi n 91979 mon 1i i d mu i 3i annon spo 313 353 esf 10999 ol ol 9
120. although some numeric fields are highlighted if out of range and some text fields are highlighted if they contain an invalid reference For instructions and rules that must be followed when creating an IDF file the user should refer to the Input Output Reference document Start IDF Editor IDF Editor should be located in the EnergyPlus PreProcessor IDFEditor directory where you installed EnergyPlus By double clicking on the IDF Editor icon you will get a screen similar to the one shown above IDF Editor works in conjunction with the current EnergyPlus Input Data Directory IDD file that resides EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 189 Auxiliary Programs i IDF Editor D DevTests InputF iles Checkin 5ZoneAutoDXVAV idf 0 4 0 152 3 0 Pjeses 38 no Figure 43 IDF Editor Screen EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 190 Auxiliary Programs in the directory where EnergyPlus is installed Another way to start the IDF Editor is from EP Launch Multiple IDF files can be opened at once Creating or Selecting an Input Data File Creating a new input data file or selecting an existing input data file can be accomplished either through use of the File menu on the menu bar at the top of the screen or through use of the New File icon button or Open File icon button on the tool bar Class List and Objects The classes that can be used to make up an IDF file have been organized into groups as shown in the Class List porti
121. ams Or as seen in the batch file text Instructions Complete the following path and program names path names must have a following or errors will happen set program_path set program_name lt specific program name will be here gt set input_path set output_path set weather_path WeatherData As the instructions in the batch file show the path character must terminate the path specification or errors can occur The weather_path specification shows an example of using a relative path specification Depending on the program this specification of course might change set weather_path WeatherData What the specification says is that above and above again and then WeatherData is where the weather data files are located This kind of relative path would be true for most Preprocess programs in the installed folders The following illustrates the folder tree lt Root Folder gt this is usually EnergyPlusV lt version gt Preprocess Specific Program Folders WeatherData Thus the user can simply put the name of the weather data file onto the batch file run and it will look for that file in the installed WeatherData folder Technical Details of Running EnergyPlus This section will contain the details of running EnergyPlus more and some duplicated information on EP Launch basic discussion included in the Getting Started manual and by hand describing the batch files tha
122. and occup NES low Notes 1 For logical values False 0 or BLANK EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 122 Auxiliary Programs True any other character 2 A literal must be enclosed inside a pair of double quotes if it contains BLANKs or reserved characters like DO E g abc def Otherwise the quotes around the literals are optional 3 Literal concatenation operators and produce quoted literals E g large office gives large office 4 Literals are case sensitive For example Chicago CHICAGO and chicago are distinct 5 EQS and NES are case sensitive string comparisons EQSU and NESU are case insensitive string compar isons 6 Literals are limited to 40 characters Macro Debugging and Listing Control list Turn on listing echo of input lines on the OUTPUT file is enabled This is the default condition nolist Turn off listing echo of input lines on the output file is disabled show Start printing expanded line on output file After this command if a macro expansion was done the expanded line is printed on the output file In this way you can see the end result of macro expansions which is the input as seen by the EnergyPlus Input processor noshow Stop printing expanded line on output file This is the default condition showdetail Start printing each macro expansion After this command every time a macro expansion is done the result of t
123. and the headers for the data fields as a minimum as well as the data that supports those header fields If you have a differently formatted file possible comma delimited investigate the custom format option The LST data type allows you to specify a list of files to be batch processed The format of this file is very simple however the default extensions from the preceding table must be used or you must include a def file see below for details Each line of the LST file can have a columnar structure as shown in the following table or can have the input file separated from the output file with a TAB character Table 3 LST File Structure Columns Contents 1 45 Name of Input File to be Processed 46 105 or follow the first name with a TAB Output File with 106 end or follow the second name with a TAB URL for KML output Definitions File An auxiliary file the Definitions File extension def can be used to specify additional or replacement characteristics for the incoming data This file is fully described in the section Definitions File amp Custom File Processing later in this document Override Default Type This button is used as described above to select the correct data type for a file that might have one of the standard default extensions but may in fact be a data file of an entirely different type For example the BLAST ASCII files as they exist on the BLAST CD have extensions of dat our defau
124. ange Two sets of input data are required for curve generation Rated and Performance Data Table 39 Input parameters description Input Parameter Description of Inputs DX Coil Type Cooling applicable for DX cooling coil single speed Heating applicable for DX heating coil single speed Other applicable for any equipment that use the three curve types Independent Variables TemperatureFlow Curve Types Biquadratic Capacity and EIR as a function of temperature Cubic Capacity and EIR as a function of flow fraction or temperature Quadratic capacity and EIR as a function of flow fraction Units IP Temperature in F Capacity in kBtu h Power in kW and Flow in CFM SI Temperature in C Capacity in kW Power in kW and Flow in m s Curve Object Name This input is optional This string is appended to the default curve object name or if left blank the default curve object name will be displayed A curve object is named is created by concatenation as follows EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 140 Auxiliary Programs Input Parameter Description of Inputs CAPFTemp User Specified CAPFFF DXCoilType Curve Object Name EIRFTemp EIRFFF Rated Data The rated data is used to normalize the performance data set The rated test conditions depend on the equipment type For DX cooling coil the rated test temperatures are 67 F 19 4 C indoor coil entering wet bulb 80 F 26 7 C indoor coil entering dry bulb and 95 F 35
125. anta ASHRAE ASHRAE 2004 ANSI ASHRAE Standard 90 2 2004 Energy Efficient Design of Low Rise Residential Buildings September 2004 Atlanta American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers ASHRAE 2004 ANSI ASHRAE IESNA Standard 90 1 2004 Energy Efficient Design of Buildings Except Low Rise Residential September 2004 Atlanta American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers ASHRAE 2009 Handbook of Fundamentals Atlanta American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers Briggs Robert S Robert G Lucas and Z Todd Taylor 2002 Climate Classification for Building Energy Codes and Standards Part 1 Development Process in ASHRAE Transactions 2002 109 Pt 1 Atlanta ASHRAE Briggs Robert S Robert G Lucas and Z Todd Taylor 2002 Climate Classification for Building Energy Codes and Standards Part 2 Zone Definitions Maps and Comparisons in ASHRAE Transactions 109 Pt 1 Atlanta ASHRAE Buhl W F 1998 DOE 2 Weather Processor DOE2 1E Documentation Update Berkeley Lawrence Berke ley National Laboratory COMIS Weather Program http www byggforsk no hybvent COMISweather htm China Meteorological Bureau Climate Information Center Climate Data Office and Tsinghua University Department of Building Science and Technology 2005 China Standard Weather Data for Analyzing Building Thermal Conditions April 2005 Beijing China Bu
126. ary Programs physical shape of the building being modeled in three dimensions The Drawing File button also opens the HVAC diagram generated with the HVAC Diagram utility see Auxiliary Programs Clicking on the Spreadsheets buttons will open any generated CSV files if an appropriate viewer has been configured see Selecting Viewers and Editors below Viewing the Drawing File without Running a Simulation The Drawing button or the View menu Drawing File option will automatically run EPDrawGUI if the DXF file does not exist or it is older than the input file This allows the building geometry to be viewed without running a full simulation For more information about EPDrawGUI see the EPDrawGUI section in this document Editing the Input Files The input file called IDF file that is selected from the top pull down list can be edited by pressing one of two buttons in the Input File area The Edit Text Editor button will start a text editor and the Edit IDF Editor will start the separate program called the IDF Editor Remember to save any changes you make in either editor before returning to EP Launch to run the simulations again File Menu The File menu can be used for selecting input and weather files just like the Browse buttons see the Selecting Input and Weather Files section above If you are upgrading from the previous version of EnergyPlus you can use the File Transition menu
127. as files constructed from the previous 12 months Meteonorm www meteonorm com Files for specific locations can be purchased in EnergyPlus format from Meteonorm company Meteonorm extrapolates hourly data from statistical data for a location Where statistical data aren t available Meteonorm interpolates from other nearby sites Generally a statistical approach is a last resort weather files generated from statistics will not demonstrate the normal hour to hour and day to day variability seen in measured data Ground Heat Transfer in EnergyPlus Caution For ground contact surfaces in EnergyPlus it is important to specify appropriate ground temperatures Do not use the undisturbed ground temperatures from the weather data These values are too extreme for the soil under a conditioned building For best results use the Slab or Basement program described in this section to calculate custom monthly average ground temperatures This is especially important for residential applications and very small buildings If one of these ground temperature preprocessors is not used for typical commercial buildings in the USA a reasonable default value is 2C less than the average indoor space temperature Introduction There are two difficulties behind linking ground heat transfer calculations to EnergyPlus One is the fact that the conduction calculations in EnergyPlus and in DOE 2 and BLAST previously are one dimensional and the ground heat tran
128. ast square method Refer to the steps in the Curve Fit Model procedure Parameter Estimation Procedure Step 2a Generating First Set of Parameters PE Based Model e Using Table 2 the program can generate parameters The user must fill all the cells colored light blue in worksheet ParamEstimator e Accuracy Start with a low accuracy for faster convergence recommended value of 0 001 e Compressor Type User is allowed to select from 3 types of compressors scroll rotary or recipro cating Contact the manufacturer to make sure that the compressor selected is correct Wrong type of compressor selected would lead to the program crashing or inaccurate parameters e Refrigerant Contact the manufacturer on the refrigerant used to generate the catalog data and select from the list of refrigerants Usually the refrigerant used is R22 e Source Side Fluid Select the type of fluid used for the source side 0 Water 1 Antifreeze Mixture Note that the number of parameters will change depending on the type of fluid Antifreeze mixture requires one additional parameter e Which Initial Guess The user may choose a set of initial guesses 1 5 that will be used by the optimization routine in generating the parameters Start with 1 which is the set of initial guesses 1 at column B e Initial Guess Initial guess for all the parameters For Initial Guess 1 enter a value of 1 for all the parameters except for the loss factor less than 1 0 T
129. ated It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 9999 Field Wind Direction This is the Wind Direction in degrees where the convention is that North 0 0 East 90 0 South 180 0 West 270 0 Wind direction in degrees at the time indicated If calm direction equals zero Values can range from 0 to 360 Missing value is 999 Field Wind Speed This is the wind speed in m sec Wind speed at time indicated Values can range from 0 to 40 Missing value is 999 Field Total Sky Cover This is the value for total sky cover tenths of coverage i e 1 is 1 10 covered 10 is total coverage Amount of sky dome in tenths covered by clouds or obscuring phenomena at the hour indicated at the time indicated Minimum value is 0 maximum value is 10 missing value is 99 Field Opaque Sky Cover This is the value for opaque sky cover tenths of coverage i e 1 is 1 10 covered 10 is total coverage Amount of sky dome in tenths covered by clouds or obscuring phenomena that prevent observing the sky or higher cloud layers at the time indicated This is not used unless the field for Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity is missing and then it is used to calculate Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity Minimum value is 0 maximum value is 10 missing value is 99 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 50 Auxiliary Programs Field Visibility This is the value for visibility in
130. ated must not have write restriction EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 141 Auxiliary Programs TH S emu iio Microsoft Eco RR ES File Home Insert Page Layout Formulas Data Review View Developer Team Y o9 cg Output File Name EPIusCurveObjects C EnergyPlus Dev Starteam EnergyPlus Internal Documentation New Feature ProposallAuxilia Save Curve Objects to a File 10 9957 R Squared Curve Biquadratic HeatPumpiCoolingCAPFTemp Name 1 4248528695 Coefficient1 Constant 0 0554469607 Coefficient2 x 0 0027506982 Coefficient3 x 2 0 0017453896 Coefficient4 y 0 0000081000 Coefficient5 y 2 0 0004638975 Coefficient6 x y 13 8888888889 Minimum Value of x 22 2222222222 Maximum Value of x 29 4444 1 Minimum Value of y 46 1111 Maximum Value of y 0 7875 Minimum Curve Output 1 1725 Maximum Curve Output Temperature Input Unit Type for X Temperature Input Unit Type for Y Dimensionless Output Unit Type INSTRUCTION INPUT OUTPUT 3 Figure 28 Curve Fit Tool Output Interface EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 142 Auxiliary Programs Sample EnergyPlus curve objects output file generated using this auxiliary tool Curve Biquadratic HeatPumpCoolingCAPFTemp Name 1 4248528695 Coefficienti Constant 0 0554469607 Coefficient2 x 0 0027506982 Coefficient3 x 2 0 0017453896 Coefficient4 y 0 0000081 Coefficient5 y 2 0 0004638975 Coefficient6
131. ay not know that there are three or four recognizable patterns of winter weather that should be included in detailed assessments A data set that lacks documentation or is dependent on separately held lists of assumptions can be effectively useless In the absence of data within the weather data format the simulation programs must calculate these data often with older calculation methods As the simulation programs have become more capable data at hourly resolution is no longer enough interpolating between hourly observations does not accurately represent weather conditions that change much more frequently such as illumination We have developed a generalized weather data format for use by energy simulation programs has been developed and adopted by both ESP r in the UK and EnergyPlus in the US Anticipating the need for data at time steps less than one hour the format includes a minute field to facilitate the use of sub hourly data The data include basic location identifiers such as location name data source latitude longitude time zone elevation peak design conditions holidays daylight saving period typical and extreme periods ground temperatures period s covered by the data and space for descriptive comments The time step data include dry bulb and dew point temperature relative humidity station pressure solar radiation global extraterrestrial horizontal infrared direct and diffuse illuminance wind direction and speed sky
132. ble Field ZO Surface Roughness NoSnow Field ZO Surface Roughness Snow These two fields specify a surface roughness that is used in the determination of the convection heat transfer coefficient between the ground surface and the air This roughness is based on boundary layer considerations and specifies the height at which an experimentally measured velocity profile goes to zero The units are centimeters not meters Typical values are 0 75 cm for no snow and 0 05 cm for snow Field HIN Indoor Hconv Downward Flow Field HIN Indoor Hconv Upward Flow These fields specify the combined convective and radiative heat transfer coefficient between the slab top inside surface and the room air for the cases where heat is flowing downward and upward The program toggles between the two if the direction of the heat flux changes Typical values can be found in the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals but should be about 6 W m K for downward heat flow and 9 W m K for upward heat flow The Materials object in the IDD is shown below Materials N1 field NMAT Number of materials note typical 2 N2 field ALBEDO Surface Albedo No Snow note typical value 0 1 N3 field ALBEDO Surface Albedo Snow note typical value 0 1 N4 field EPSLW Surface Emissivity No Snow note typical value 0 9 N5 field EPSLW Surface Emissivity Snow note typical value 0 9 N6 field ZO Surface Roughness No Snow note typical value 0 10 cm
133. c to of periods entered A weather file may contain several data periods though this is not required and in fact may be detrimen tal In addition a weather file may contain multiple records per hour BUT these must match the Number of Time Steps In Hour for the simulation Multiple interval data files can be valued when you want to be sure of the weather values for each time step rather than relying on interpolated weather data A weather file may also contain several consecutive years of weather data EnergyPlus will automatically process the extra years when the Number of Years field is used in the RunPeriod object Sorry there is no way to jump into a year in the middle of the EP W file Note that a Run Period object may not cross Data Period boundary lines For those interested in creating their own weather data in the CSV or EPW formats or reading the csv and epw files that are produced by the Weather Converter program the fields are shown in the following IDD description Items shown in bold are used directly in the EnergyPlus program Actual data does not have a descriptor N1 field Year N2 field Month N3 field Day N4 field Hour N5 field Minute A1 field Data Source and Uncertainty Flags note Initial day of weather file is checked by EnergyPlus for validity as shown below note Each field is checked for missing as shown below Reasonable values calculated note values or the last good value
134. cal value 2243 units kg m3 N4 field density for Ceiling note typical value 311 units kg m3 N5 field density for Soil note typical value 1500 units kg m3 N6 field density for Gravel note typical value 2000 units kg m3 N7 field density for Wood note typical value 449 units kg m3 N8 field Specific heat for foundation wall note typical value 880 units J kg K N9 field Specific heat for floor slab note typical value 880 units J kg K N10 field Specific heat for ceiling note typical value 1530 units J kg K N11 field Specific heat for soil note typical value 840 units J kg K N12 field Specific heat for gravel note typical value 720 units J kg K N13 field Specific heat for wood note typical value 1530 units J kg K N14 field Thermal conductivity for foundation wall note typical value 1 4 units W m K EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 93 Auxiliary Programs N15 field Thermal conductivity for floor slab note typical value 1 4 units W m K N16 field Thermal conductivity for ceiling note typical value 0 09 units W m K N17 field thermal conductivity for soil note typical value 1 1 units W m K N18 field thermal conductivity for gravel note typical value 1 9 units W m K N19 field thermal conductivity for wood note typical value 0 12 units W m K Insulation Ni field REXT R Value of any exterior insulation K W m2 Nunits m2 K W A
135. cessor macro commands produce regular lines of EnergyPlus input that are shown in the resultant IDF file out idf and subsequently in the EnergyPlus echo print audit out Following are descriptions of the macro commands associated with the above capabilities A detailed example of input macros is given at the end of this section you should review it before reading the macro command descriptions Running the EP Macro program The EP Macro program is run automatically from the batch files RunEPlus or EPL Run from EP Launch Skip this small section if you are using either the RunEPlus batch file or EP Launch If you wish to run it by hand it is found in the main folder of the EnergyPlus install bin folder in the Linux install Note that in EP Launch and other script files for use with EP Macro the convention is to name the file imf input macro file If you name it idf input data file the scripts will most likely think it is a normal EnergyPlus input file and ignore using EP Macro on it giving you a less than desireable result Table 32 Files used in EP Macro program File Name Description in imf Input file containing the macro commands audit out audit of the EPMacro run out idf Output file that can be run with EnergyPlus The EP Macro program is a Console Application so to run by hand you would need to open a command prompt in the Main EnergyPlus install folder Then you would need to copy your input file containing the
136. ch when this happens you will see a window appear as in the figure below Figure 48 Follow the instructions listed on the screen Bugs The EP Launch program has been through several releases but there is still a chance you will find bugs Please report them to the energyplus support gard com address so that we can fix them prior to the release If the pull down lists ever are shown as blank the reset button may be used This unlabeled button is very small in the lower left hand corner of the main screen It removes the items shown in the recently used file list and causes the program to forget the selected viewers and text editors and exits the program When you start EP Launch again you will need to make these selections viewers and text editors again EP Launch Lite EP Launch Lite is a small application included with the EnergyPlus Macintosh installation It is a small GUI application that provides a simple way to run EnergyPlus models Its purpose is similar to EP Launch but it is a much simpler application with fewer features EnergyPlus File Extensions This section will present a list perhaps not complete of EnergyPlus file extensions and what they mean This will help you after the EP Launch program finishes Input Files The following files are input to the EnergyPlus program IDD The input data dictionary IDD is an ascii text file containing a list of all possible EnergyPlus objects and a specification of
137. cription of Def input file the weather converter can process a wide range of data formats In the table above both the GDG and CTYW weather data was processed by a custom format approach Solar Data Source weather data files may or may not contain solar data All of the files that can be processed by the EnergyPlus Weather conversion utility contain solar data The weather processor will transfer this data to the EPW weather file and the EnergyPlus simulation program will use it Historical weather data files in CD144 format do not contain solar data nor is such data generally available for a specific location and time period In this case ersatz solar data must be generated from cloud cover and other data using sky models and regression formulas Currently neither the Weather Conversion utility nor the EnergyPlus program synthesizes this data However the weather conversion utility can use any two of the commonly recorded data i e two of Global Horizontal Radiation Horizontal Diffuse Radiation and Direct Normal or Direct Horizontal Radiation to calculate the EnergyPlus primary solar data of Direct Normal and Horizontal Diffuse Radiation values EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 65 Auxiliary Programs Data Sources Uncertainty More recent weather data source files have introduced the concept of data sources and uncertainty flags for many of the fields The EnergyPlus weather format faithfully reproduces these fields as appropriate
138. ct belongs to a small specific object list as well as a larger more general object list Object level comments memo Memo describing the object unique object To flag objects which should appear only once in an idf this comment has no value required object To flag objects which are required in every idf this comment has no value min fields Minimum number of fields that should be included in the object If appropriate the Input Processor will fill any missing fields with defaults for numeric fields It will also supply that number of fields to the get routines using blanks for alpha fields note blanks may not be allowable for some alpha fields obsolete This object has been replaced though is kept and is read in the current version Please refer to documentation as to the dispersal of the object If this object is encountered in an IDF the InputProcessor will post an appropriate message to the error file usage obsolete New gt New object name extensible lt gt This object is dynamically extensible meaning if you change the IDD appropriately if the object has a simple list structure just add items to the list arguments i e BRANCH LIST These will be automatically redimensioned and used during the simulation lt gt should be entered by the developer to signify how many of the last fields are needed to be extended and EnergyPlus will attempt to auto extend the object The first field of the f
139. d Minute This is the minute field 1 60 Field Data Source and Uncertainty Flags The data source and uncertainty flags from various formats usually shown with each field are consolidated in the E E EPW format More is shown about Data Source and Uncertainty in Data Sources Uncertainty section later in this document Field Dry Bulb Temperature This is the dry bulb temperature in C at the time indicated Note that this is a full numeric field i e 23 6 and not an integer representation with tenths Valid values range from 70 C to 70 C Missing value for this field is 99 9 Field Dew Point Temperature This is the dew point temperature in C at the time indicated Note that this is a full numeric field i e 23 6 and not an integer representation with tenths Valid values range from 70 C to 70 C Missing value for this field is 99 9 Field Relative Humidity This is the Relative Humidity in percent at the time indicated Valid values range from 096 to 11096 Missing value for this field is 999 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 48 Auxiliary Programs Field Atmospheric Station Pressure This is the station pressure in Pa at the time indicated Valid values range from 31 000 to 120 000 These values were chosen from the standard barometric pressure for all elevations of the World Missing value for this field is 999999 Field Extraterrestrial Horizontal Radiation This is the Extraterrestrial Horizontal Radiation in Wh m2 It is not
140. d B46 B54 for heating mode 3 Generate E Input Parameters e The button shown below in worksheet ParamEstimator is used for clearing Initial Guess 2 5 Parameters 1 5 Error 1 5 EnergyPlus Input parameters and Result 1 5 in worksheet RESULT Clear Result End Parameter Estimation Procedure Curve Fit Model Procedure Step 2 Generating the coefficients Curve Fit Model e Using Table 2 the program is ready to generate the coefficients User is required to fill all the cells colored light blue in worksheet CoeffCalculator EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 146 Auxiliary Programs e RatedLoadVolFlowRate Rated load side volumetric flow rate m s which corresponds to the highest load side heat transfer rate listed in the catalog data e RatedSourceVolFlowRate Rated source side volumetric flow rate m s which corresponds to the highest load side heat transfer rate listed in the catalog data e RatedQload Rated load side heat transfer rate W which is the highest load side heat transfer rate listed in the catalog data e RatedPower Rated power consumption W which corresponds to the highest load side heat transfer rate listed in the catalog data e Now click on Button 2 shown below to calculate the coefficients 2 Generate Coefficients i e The coefficients for the corresponding curves are listed at cell B12 C16 Error analysis of model is listed at cell B19 B27 e The errors for all the individu
141. d Wash Gk den EO alae tl eos LO Elo als ASO Gare ats OS A Gy AO a e wey ST MI eat OSO O SE AOL O EZ Ol ES LS OLD OZ Suo 2800 ot 6 10 0 11 2 12 0 Gl 6 120 de 14 0 129 4 dit al E ROMERO OT DI DO ES O SAS AS SAS AS OO SN beis Se00 woth Cot eG ls 1 as des 18 5 de 12 2 10 83 55 SEO 700 16 ES se 12 2 dl Mail ass AS aa 12 3 alg En Weil 3800 ick Cheri slabs iaa a al la aro SAGE Mos do EN EOS SAO ot 01 12 0 del ios O abel UA Ue iS ALS 00 ORT 00 E ALO dr MO EA EST MA A als Goal acho OE Ol dO OMIM OLA lee MEL ea ao alte Gy A iS MLS 19195011 1 2 90 00 WO 182 15 60 100 108 198 Wes 20 0 20 0 119 0 14 E ail 12501 13200 1134 71472 164 A 1920206205202 14332153 185914 091205 13 01 14 00 11 5 14 5 16 9 17 0 19 0 20 5 19 8 21 5 21 4 19 2 15 4 12 9 EOE so Lale M4 alate AO aye e 104 2119 Wil sto ale aT O tol f ol 100 Sore GO Ss OO 20064 10 102 A SO LEO 1500011508 Y O SA OS O E gt SSA SOS na OS UN leal oa aa a O E a O Tb SETS 72851270 SAA 10 MP2 O o o at ls aye 1001 MaS dy y do 19201200010 3048 11231259 13 4 1378 1553 15 40 4 5 6 714 9 13071151 20 01 21 00 9 7 11 4 11 7 12 6 13 2 13 3 14 8 15 0 15 1 14 5 12 6 10 6 21 01 22 00 2 6 11 0 11 6 12 3 13 0 12 9 14 2 14 7 14 8 14 2 12 1 10 4 22 01 23 00 9 5 10 6 11 3 12 0 12 7 12 5 14 0 14 3 14 6 13 8 12 1 10 3 23 501 AAA 952010 ss al ahah SUETON DP ols o e lola Mo so OO Max Hour 15 16 14 13 12 13 13 14 14 14 15 15 Min Hour 6 7 6 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 6 Average Hourly Statistics for Dew Po
142. d summer heating and cooling They were based on seasonal percentages EnergyPlus uses the design day object values and creates an entire day of weather data this is described more fully in the Input Output Reference under the DesignDay object The weather converter program assigns SummerDesignDay and WinterDesignDay day types by default these day types influence scheduling of various elements How to use these effectively is described during the DesignDay and Schedule objects discussions in the Input Output Reference Beginning in 1997 and continuing the latest version was published in 2009 the design condition data is based on annual percentages In addition only locations with long term hourly observations data on which to form the basis are included From ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals 2009 e Design data based on dry bulb temperature represent peak occurrences of the sensible component of ambient outdoor conditions Design values based on wet bulb temperature are related to the enthalpy of the outdoor air Conditions based on dew point relate to the peaks of the humidity ratio The designer engineer or other user must decide which set s of conditions and probability of occurrence apply to the design situation under consideration e The 99 6 and 99 Heating conditions are often used in the sizing of heating equipment e The 0 4 1 0 and 2 0 dry bulb temperatures and mean coincident wet bulb temperatures i
143. de Name Dialog Box Where Selected Other Node Name Appears in File Hea eee To enter a new node name type it in the Node Name field near the top of the dialog To select a name of a node that is already being used in the file choose a node name from the list shown on the left of the dialog box and labeled Other Node Names When a node name is selected from the list on the left side of the dialog box the box near the bottom left shown as Where Selected Other Node Name Appears in File will display the name of the class name of the object and name of the field for each other location in the file that node name is currently be used The Other Node Names list on the left side of the dialog box may contain a very long list of node names depending on the complexity of the HVAC system To help with this four options are available just above the list titled All Recent Containing and Class or Field The All option shows all node names used in the file while the other options are used to narrow the list down to only certain node names The Recent option shows only node names that have recently been edited The Containing option shows a list on the right side of the dialog box called Filter by Contents which shows all of the various words used as part of node names These words can be selected and the Other Node Names list will only show node names that contain those words By selecting words from this list the list of
144. ded to do the simulation as an equivalent square geometry by utilizing the area to perimeter ratio This procedure was shown to be accurate by Cogil 1998 Field APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab This field specifies the Area to Perimeter A P ratio for the slab Field EquivSizing Flag This field should always be TRUE unless the user wants to specifically look at the differences between the long wall and the short wall on a rectangular configuration EquivAutoGrid or GroundHeat Transfer Basement EquivAutoGrid Object This is a necessary object when the EquivSizing Flag in the EquivSlab object is TRUE This object provides the information needed to set up the three dimensional conduction grid surrounding the basement EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 100 Auxiliary Programs Field CLEARANCE Distance from outside of wall to edge of 3 D ground domain This field specifies the distance to the outside of the field from the basement wall It has been determined that 15 meters is quite satisfactory Field SlabDepth Thickness of the floor slab This field specifies the thickness of the slab in meters Note that the slab top surface is level with the ground surface so this is the depth into the ground The slab depth has a significant effect on the temperature calculation and it is also important for the auto grid process The finite difference grids are set in such a way that they use the slab thickness to determine the vertical
145. design condition objects are constrained by the data source Some data sources do not have elevation information thus a location object from such a source will have an elevation of 0 0 Likewise the time zone of some locations may not be available from the source data nor other data resources that the weather converter uses A time zone will be estimated from the standard meridian of the location determined by the longitude but it may not be accurate A user needs to be aware of these limitations when taking the design day files from the weather converter Note that you can always include a def file with this data to assure accuracy regardless of input format limitations An excerpt of a design day output is shown in the following actual design day objects have been deleted for brevity Note that with the 2009 ASHRAE HOF climate conditions a possible DaylightSavingPeriod object may be included EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 36 Auxiliary Programs Daily Dry Bulb Statistics Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Month Figure 7 Graph of Spreadsheet Data The following Location and Design Day data are produced as possible from the indicated data source Wind Speeds follow the indicated design conditions rather than traditional values 6 7 m s heating 3 35 m s cooling No special attempts at re creating or determining missing data parts e g Wind speed or direction are done Therefore you should look at th
146. dows are named Batch Simulation lt n gt where n is 1 to the number of processor cores you selected to use EnergyPlus Files Input Files The following files are input to the EnergyPlus program Energy idd The input data dictionary IDD is an ascii text file containing a list of all possible EnergyPlus objects and a specification of the data each object requires This file is analogous to the DOE 2 keyword file The Guide for Interface Developers contains a full description of the input data dictionary in idf The input data file IDF is an ascii file containing the data describing the building and HVAC system to be simulated The Guide for Interface Developers shows examples of IDF input Many example files are installed as part of the EnergyPlus installation in imf The input macro file IMF is an ascii file that is formatted for the EP Macro program Output from the EP Macro program will be the standard in idf format IMF files are not directly read by EnergyPlus Energy ini This is the EnergyPlus initialization file It is an optional ascii input file that allows the user to specify the path for the directory containing Energy idd This file using the actual directories of the install will be created during the install An example is program dir C EnergyPlus weather dir BasementGHT dir PreProcess GrndTempCalc SlabGHT dir PreProcess GrndTempCalc EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 182 Auxiliary Progra
147. e is West is East degree minutes represented in decimal i e 30 minutes is 5 type real N4 field TimeZone units hr not on standard units list minimum 12 0 maximum 12 0 default 0 0 note Time relative to GMT type real N5 field Elevation units m minimum 1000 0 maximum lt 9999 9 default 0 0 type real The Location header record duplicates the information required for the Location Object When only a Run Period object is used i e a weather file then the Location Object Is not needed When a Run Period and Design Day objects are entered then the Location on the weather file as described previously is used and overrides any Location Object entry DESIGN CONDITIONS N1 field Number of Design Conditions A1 field Design Condition Source note current sources are ASHRAE HOF 2009 US Design Conditions Canadian Design Conditions note and World Design Conditions A2 field Design Condition Type HEATING note fields here will be dependent on the source they are shown in a header data format note in both the rpt and csv files that are produced by the WeatherConverter program An field Design Condition Type COOLING note same as note on Heating Design Conditions The Design Conditions header record encapsulates matching using WMO World Meteorological Organi zation Station Number design conditions for a weather file location Currently only those design conditions contained in the ASHRAE
148. e OtherSideCoefficients object must be supplied In compact schedule format it would appear as shown below Again objects for each of the surface temperatures are produced by the program and output in the file EPObjects txt Schedule Compact GroundTempCompactSched Name Temperature ScheduleType Through 1 31 Complex Field 1 For AllDays Complex Field 2 Until 24 00 Complex Field 3 16 Complex Field 4 Through 2 28 Complex Field 5 For AllDays Complex Field 6 Until 24 00 Complex Field 7 ims Complex Field 8 Through 3 31 Complex Field 9 For AllDays Complex Field 10 Until 24 00 Complex Field 11 18 Complex Field 12 Through 4 30 Complex Field 13 For AllDays Complex Field 14 Until 24 00 Complex Field 15 19 Complex Field 16 Through 5 31 Complex Field 17 For AllDays Complex Field 18 Until 24 00 Complex Field 19 20 Complex Field 20 Through 6 30 Complex Field 21 For AllDays Complex Field 22 Until 24 00 Complex Field 23 20 Complex Field 24 Through 7 31 Complex Field 25 For AllDays Complex Field 26 Until 24 00 Complex Field 27 20 Complex Field 28 Through 8 31 Complex Field 29 For AllDays Complex Field 30 Until 24 00 Complex Field 31 195 Complex Field 32 Through 9 30 Complex Field 33 For AllDays Complex Field 34 Until 24 00
149. e Post Processing Program If available Copy 41 mvi post processor commands into test mvi o XAO 0Mp0NeA EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 181 Auxiliary Programs or create appropriate input to get meter output from eplusout mtr 9 Execute ReadVarsESO exe the Post Processing Program for meter output 10 Copy Eplusout to 1 x 11 Clean up working directory RunDirMulti Batch File The RunDirMulti bat batch file runs all the IDF files in the directory that it is located in The batch file is used to run EnergyPlus simulations using the RunEPlus bat for all the files in the current directory across multiple separate processor cores It has two parameters the weather file name to use for simulations and the number of processors RunDirMulti weather file opt number processor cores opt The RunDirMulti batch file loops through the files located in the current directory and puts RunEPlus calls to each file into as many temporary batch files as processor cores and then starts each of the batch files No load balancing between the cores is achieved using this method The RunDirMulti bat file should be located in a directory that contains the IDF files Editing of the file may be necessary to match the directory that EnergyPlus is installed in Since the batch file starts up other batch files in different CMD windows the only way to know that the simulations are all complete is when all of the other CMD windows are closed Those win
150. e a message will be shown upon start up You can also manually check by going to HELP CHECK FOR UPDATES Text Editor Options EP Launch will start a text editor when editing a IDF file or when viewing many of the results files The text editor that will be used is shown but can be changed by either pressing the Select button or by pressing the Auto Find button The Select button allows you to find the text editor of your choice The Auto Find button will automatically find the program that is associated with the TXT file EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 168 Auxiliary Programs extension and use that program Auto Find is invoked the first time EP Launch is started so that a text editor is available immediately The most common text editor is NOTEPAD EXE and is built into Windows but many other text editors are also available Drawing Viewer Options The default drawing viewer is the application associated with DXF files This can be changed to your favorite drawing program by using the Select button then locating the executable file for your favorite drawing software capable of reading a DXF file The Auto Find button will automatically find the program that is associated with the DXF file extension and use that program A variety of programs free of charge can render DXF files for viewing The Output Details document lists some of these programs as well as displaying what a DXF rendered file looks like on the screen VRML Viewer Options EP Launch
151. e data and fill in any incorrect values as you desire Site Location Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Design Conditions Location Name 41 98 Latitude N S 280 92 Longitude W E 6 00 Time Zone Relative to GMT GMT 201 00 Elevation m WMO 725300 Time Zone NAC GMT 06 00 Central Time US amp Canada Data Source ASHRAE 2009 Annual Design Conditions RunPeriodControl DaylightSavingTime 2nd Sunday in March StartDate 2nd Sunday in November EndDate Using Design Conditions from Climate Design Data 2009 ASHRAE Handbook Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Extreme Annual Wind Speeds 1 11 1m s 2 5 9 4m s 5 8 6m s Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Extreme Annual Temperatures Max Drybulb 23 7 C Min Drybulb 35 9 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Heating Design Conditions Wind Speed 4 9m s Wind Dir 270 Chicago Ohare Intl Ap Annual Cooling Design Conditions Wind Speed 5 2m s Wind Dir 230 Coldest Month January Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Heating 99 6 MaxDB 20 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Heating 99 MaxDB 16 6 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Cooling DB gt MWB 1 MaxDB 31 6 C MWB 23 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Humidification 99 6 Design Conditions DP gt MCDB DP 25 7 C Chicago Ohare Intl Ap IL USA Annual Humidification 99 Design Conditions DP gt MCDB DP 22 1 C EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 37 Auxiliary Programs Chicago Ohare
152. e format of the file is discussed in the Guide for Interface Developers and the InputOutputReference The contents of the file are controlled by Output Variable commands in the IDF file Although the ESO is a text file it is not easily interpretable by a human Usually postprocessing will be done on this file in order to put it in a format that can be read by a spreadsheet however a quick visual inspection of the file does show whether the expected variables are output at the desired time step mtr The EnergyPlus Meter Output MTR is a text file containing the time varying simulation output The format of the file is similar to the ESO file As described in the Getting Started document meters are a EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 178 Auxiliary Programs powerful reporting tool in EnergyPlus Values are grouped onto logical meters and can be viewed the same way that the ESO variables are used The contents of the file are controlled by Output Meter commands in the IDF file Although the MTR is a text file it is not easily interpretable by a human Usually postprocessing will be done on this file in order to put it in a format that can be read by a spreadsheet however a quick visual inspection of the file does show whether the expected variables are output at the desired time step mtd This file contains all the details i e which report variables are on a meter and conversely what meters contain about meters eio The EnergyPlus Invariant O
153. e the facing direction of a surface is based on the outward normal The facing direction becomes just slightly more difficult with horizontal surfaces like floors and ceilings The key EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 108 Auxiliary Programs to determining their facing direction is to visualize them being rotated slightly into the zone around their base surface axis In the example both ceiling and floor are chosen to face south The tilt of a surface is relative to a horizontal upward facing in the conventional sense surface such as a floor A ceiling or flat roof it tilted 180 degrees Vertical surfaces have a tilt of 90 degrees The remaining information needed to describe the surfaces is the coordinates of the lower left hand corner of the surface when viewed from inside the zone This is where the visualization of a slight rotation of the floor and roof becomes helpful Consider the roof surface on the sheet Its base side lies along the east west axis since it faces south With a slight inward rotation it is clear that the lower left hand corner is the northwest corner of the roof This corner has coordinates of 0 60 and 8 If the VerticesZoneSheet is being used the description of the surfaces consists only of the vertices For this program the vertices are specified in a counter clockwise rotation order if looking at the surface from the inside and in a clockwise rotation order if looking from the outside The vs3 file produced is sho
154. e transition process during a console run If you convert multiple versions all the messages are shown in this file filename idf Converted results to the latest version or version selected filename Vxxx idf If you don t select create intermediate versions this will only be the original version Otherwise will have each version Transition Console Program Details For those who are interested this is the detailed description of the Transition console applications including the current one There are methods to use the program set from the command line those details are not included in this document but available from EnergyPlus Support group TransitionV6 0 0 to V7 0 0 exe is the current transition program that is distributed with the V7 0 release It uses several important files that are included in the main EnergyPlus folder Table 31 Transition files for current release File Name Description TransitionV6 0 0 to V 7 0 0 exe The executable program V6 0 0 Energy idd Version 6 0 0 037 release Energy idd file V7 0 0 Energy idd Identical to Energy idd when distributed Report Variables 6 0 0 023 to 7 0 0 csv Report variable name changes Another file Rules6 0 0 to 7 0 0 xls is not used directly by the program but contains the rules for trans lating objects from version 6 0 release to the 7 0 release The ObjectStatus file can also be viewed it will show if deleted objects are automatically tran
155. eName2 But you must include the path name in the file if it is not in the same folder as the transition set of programs C Myfiles abc idf C My Working Files abcdef idf D OtherFiles xxxxxyyyyy idf Etc Note that the files need not be in the same folder And if you use the IDF Version Updater app they need not all be the same version If you use the straight batch files form the CMD line all files in this list must be the same starting version and you will need to select that version when you run the batch file List files have the implicit transition options seen in the following section Converting imf files The transition conversion programs can automatically transition imf ep macro files One note of caution if your macro file contains if statements in the form PEOPLE ZONE ONE Zone Name if DoSizing EQSU Y FAREA OCCDENPEAK Number of People else H FAREA OCCDENAVG Number of People endif OCCSCHED Number of People SCHEDULE Name real fraction 0 5000000 Fraction Radiant Activity Sch Activity level SCHEDULE Name units W person real They should look like this if DoSizing EQSU Y PEOPLE ZONE ONE Zone Name H FAREA OCCDENPEAK Number of People OCCSCHED l Number of People SCHEDULE Name real fraction 0 5000000 Fraction Radiant Activity Sch Activity level SCHEDULE Name units W person real else PEOPLE ZONE ONE Z
156. each header is shown and then the data Partial year files will not have all of these headers filled in Also see Figure 17 EnergyPlus EPW CSV file spreadsheet view and Figure 18 EnergyPlus EPW CSV Data Records spreadsheet view for snapshot pictures of the EnergyPlus EPW CSV file as shown in a spreadsheet Location Header Data CSV Location Title Latitude N S Longitude E W TimeZone GMT Elevation m LOCATION SYDNEY AUS IWEC Data 947670 33 95 151 18 10 0 3 0 LOCATION 4 the city state province country and WMO fields from the EPW file are concatenated to form the Location Title The latitude longitude time zone and elevation fields are numeric Design Conditions Header Data CSV If there are design conditions then the format is as follows Number of Design Conditions Title of Design Condition Design Stat HDB 99 6 HDB 99 X WS 1 X WS 2 5 X WS 5 CM WS 44 CM MDB 4 CM WS 1 CM MDB 1 MWS 99 6 PWD 99 6 MWS 4 PWD 4 X MnDB Max X MnDB Min X StdDB Max X StdDB Min Design Stat CDB 44 C MWB 4 CDB 1 C MWB 1 CDB 2 C MWB 2 E WB 4 E MDB 4 E WB 1 E MDB 1 E WB 2 E MDB 2 DP 4 HR 4 MDB 4 DP 1 HR 1 MDB 1 DP 2 HR 2 MDB 2 DB Range Units C C m s m s m s m s C m s C m s Degree m s Degree C C C C UNE seas Cip ore OC pk Ole gl Ole Ey i Spe Co pecie CES ON Cs CI SCC p Ze pipe OH lO p fale ok Ole ah C g kg C C 1 World Climate De
157. ecipitable water mm N EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 18 Auxiliary Programs Default Used by Short Name Long Name EPW Units EnergyPlus aerosol opt depth aerosol optical depth thousandths N snowdepth snow depth cm Y days last snow days since last snow N Albedo albedo N rain liquid precipitation depth mm Y rain quantity liquid precipitation rate Hour N Custom Files Auxiliary Data Often raw data files will not have the preceding elements but similar elements that can be used to derive the values used in the EPW files and in EnergyPlus For example dew point temperature and relative humidity are needed and can be derived from dry builb temperature and a humidity indicating element such as wet bulb temperature or humidity ratio The following table contains the data element names that can be used in the Weather Converter program to derive other data which will then be placed into the EPW data fields Table 10 Auxiliary Data for Custom Files Short Name Long Name Units Used by EnergyPlus wetbulb wet bulb temperature C N humratio humidity_ratio g kg N dirhorrad direct_horizontal_radiation Wh m N interval Interval unit N hour yr hour of year hour N time Time hh mm N hh mm HH MM hh mm N Date Date mm dd yyyy N Explanation of these data elements follows Wetbulb Wet Bulb Temperature If you have the wet bulb temperature this data element can be used to derive the dew point temperature and relative humidity HumRatio Humidi
158. ect buttons work the same way as other viewer selectors If no special ESO viewer is selected the box will be shown as empty It can also be emptied by using the Clear button EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 169 Auxiliary Programs PDF Viewer Options EP Launch will start a PDF viewer program when opening the EnergyPlus docu mentation under the Help menu The PDF Viewer that will be used is shown but can be changed by either pressing the Select button or by pressing the Auto Find button The Select button allows you to find the PDF Viewer of your choice The Auto Find button will automatically find the program that is associated with the PDF file extension and use that program Auto Find is invoked the first time EP Launch is started so that a PDF Viewer is available immediately File Association Options When installing EnergyPlus you are given an option if you want IDF IMF and EPG files associated with EP Launch This allows double clicking on files with those extensions and having EP Launch start automatically with those files If during the install that option is not selected or if you have changed the program that opens IDF IMF and EPG files and want to change it back to EP Launch the button for this option will do that Reset Options Two reset options are available here The Auto Find All File Viewers button will autofind all the file viewers in one step This is equivalent to pressing the Auto Find button for each viewer program The R
159. efault 0 field Wind Speed Coefficient Ntype real default 0 field Zone Air Temperature Coefficient type real default 0 field Constant Temperature Schedule Name note Name of schedule for values of constant temperature note Schedule values replace any value specified in the field Constant Temperature type object list object list ScheduleNames A sample idf for this object is shown below SurfaceProperty OtherSideCoefficients OSCCoef Zn005 Wall003 OSC Name Example input for second ground temperature 0 0000000E 00 OSC SurfFilmCoef 0 000000 b OSC Temp 1 000000 5 OSC Temp Coef 0 000000 5 OSC dry bulb 0 000000 b 08C GrndTemp 0 000000 5 OSC WindSpdCoeff 0 000000 0 OSC ZoneAirTemp GroundTempSched Name of schedule defining additional ground temperature The OSC object can be repeated for as many outside temperatures as needed A more detailed explanation of how to use this object is contained in the next section and an example object is output by the program in the file EPObjects txt Multiple Ground Temperatures These three objects show how the OtherSideCoefficients object can be used to provide extra ground temper atures for surfaces exposed to different ground temperatures Here is the surface description Note that the OutsideFaceEnvironment is specified as OtherSideCoeff BuildingSurface Detailed OSCTest South Wall Wall Exterior OSCTest OtherSideCoeffic
160. ell And the parameters generated will be displayed at Parameter 2 e Compare Error 2 to Error 1 the error values should be less which means that the parameters are getting better and more accurate e Repeat the steps in 2a and 2b until a desired set of error values is achieved or the errors stop decreasing Step 3 Generating EnergyPlus Input Parameters e Click on the Button 3 shown below to convert and arrange the parameters generated to fit EnergyPlus Input File IDF which will be listed from cell B46 B54 3 Generate E Input Parameters e The button shown below in worksheet ParamEstimator is used for clearing Initial Guess 2 5 Parameters 1 5 Error 1 5 EnergyPlus Input parameters and Result 1 5 in worksheet RESULT Clear Result End Parameter Estimation Procedure Curve Fit Model Procedure Step 2 Generating the coefficients Curve Fit Model e Using Table 2 the program can generate the coefficients The user must fill all the cells colored light blue in Worksheet CoeffCalculator e RatedAirVolFlowRate Rated volumetric air flow rate m s which corresponds to the highest heating capacity listed in the catalog data e RatedWaterVolFlowRate Rated volumetric water flow rate m s which corresponds to the high est heating capacity listed in the catalog data EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 153 Auxiliary Programs e RatedTotalCap Rated heating capacity W which is the highest heating capacity l
161. emperature data Monthly Statistics for Dry Bulb temperatures C JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Maximum 16 7 22 2 23 9 28 3 29 4 32 8 26 7 29 4 30 0 26 7 20 6 16 1 Day Hour19 1314 1312 15 2 15 1 1230 1412 13 2 1315 1420 14 1 14 1 15 Minimum oP YO A GEO E fees Sas Dyes Day Hour24 0626 0723 0519 05 4 0222 03 1 0428 05 7 0231 0530 0526 05 DES IA ls AS O as O iS lo a A OT Maximum Dry Bulb temperature of Minimum Dry Bulb temperature of 32 8 C DE DAS on Jun 30 on Jan 24 Monthly Statistics for Extreme Dry Bulb temperatures C Days JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Max gt 32 Max lt 0 Min lt 0 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 1 Page 30 Auxiliary Programs Min lt 18 Monthly Statistics for Dew Point temperatures C JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Maximum 13 3 12 2 13 9 15 0 16 7 16 1 14 0 16 7 16 7 14 4 14 4 13 9 Day Houri7 1221 0429 15 2 1414 09 5 12 8 14 3 1023 12 6 1411 12 7 03 Mia O A Os O oO Goi Gol sth mils QE DG Day Hour24 0524 0712 1512 13 2 1718 17 2 1330 1215 1716 2121 2119 12 Daily Avg6 4 6 6 8 1 8 2 9 4 10 0 10 7 11 5 12 5 9 4 8 3 6 1 Maximum Dew Point temperature of 16 7 C on May 14 Minimum Dew Point temperature of 5 6 C on Dec 19 For the dry bulb and dew point temperatures an average hourly report by month is also given Average Hourly Statistics for Dry Bulb temperatures C JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec OC 3800 NEG S9 Co 10 0 1
162. en you have a list of files to process and the format or some portion is all the same between the group of files The two def files one named the same as the file name for the raw data and one named presets def will both be processed Conflicts between the two will be shown in the audit file The set of namelist groups is e location Location data e amp miscdata Comments to be applied to COMMENT in the EPW file and Source Data e amp wthdata weather data specifications including file type custom formats e amp datacontrol user specified control over missing data Custom format only Note that the Def formats are entirely different from the usual IDF formats of EnergyPlus No commas separate fields No semicolon terminates the entry amp location City Hong Kong StateProv Country CHN InLat 22 75 InLong 115 InTime 8 InElev 0 InWM0 2450040 amp miscdata Commentsi This file was given to us by SourceData riginal xyz data EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 14 Auxiliary Programs The slash character terminating each block is very important omissions results in incorrect reading of data Definitions File Details are shown in the following table You may leave out a field if you wish the program will use whatever default is applicable or usable from the data format All data formats accept this additional file Only Custom format currently uses the amp datacontrol eleme
163. ence as well as the Output Details and Examples documents You can also used the CSVProc and convertESOM TR described earlier in this document as part of your post processing strategy EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 184 Auxiliary Programs Creating Input Files EnergyPlus has several options for the user to create input files One of the goals of EnergyPlus was to make a simple readable input file for the program More of this background and explanation is contained in the Interface Developer s Guide Understanding the Input Data Dictionary IDD is the key to reading the input file We have set some conventions for commenting the IDD so that the units minimum maximum and other information This changes some of the information that is shown in the Interface Developer s guide The Energy idd delivered with the install program contains the most current information In addition to the four methods for creating inputs described below several other items are described that may assist you in getting the results you want from EnergyPlus in a timely manner Four methods with the installed program are available to create input files IDFEditor this is a very simple intelligent editor that reads the IDD and IDFs and allows creation re vision of IDF files It can be run from a shortcut in the main EnergyPlus directory created as part of the install or directly from EP Launch BLAST Translator if you already have BLAST and or BLAS
164. endix G would change EP Launch can be used to run both the AppGPostProcess program by using the Utilities tab in EP Launch See the EP Launch section in this document for more information on how to use EP Launch BLAST Translator The BLAST Translator will produce an IDF file from an existing BLAST Input File usually called bin For anyone that is unfamiliar BLAST stands for the Building Loads Analysis and Systems Thermodynamics computer program Documentation is included here though the BLAST Translator is no longer included with the EnergyPlus Installation it is available as a special download for those who need it A special batch file RunXLate bat can be used to run the translation program Similar to running EnergyPlus see above you run this batch file RunXLate Where is the part of the file name without extension The program produces a idf file of the same name The BLAST Translator uses an Energy ini file for some parameters For example program dir ver surf group weather dir The above BLAST Translator ini file sets the version of EnergyPlus to the current version and has the surf parameter set to group This BLASTTranslator run will produce an EnergyPlus input file for the current release version format and will name surfaces by Zone and Class e g ZNO01 Wall001 The alternative Consecutive will number surfaces in sequence DOE2Translator The DOE2Translator program c
165. ensity kg m3 of soil Typical value is 1500 Field Density for Gravel This field is the density kg m3 of gravel Typical value is 2000 Field Density for Wood This field is the density kg m3 of wood Typical value is 449 Field Specific Heat for Foundation Wall This field is the specific heat J kg K of the foundation wall Typical value is 880 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 96 Auxiliary Programs Field Specific Heat for Floor Slab This field is the specific heat J kg K of the floor slab Typical value is 880 Field Specific Heat for Ceiling This field is the specific heat J kg K of the ceiling Typical value is 1530 Field Specific Heat for Soil This field is the specific heat J kg K of soil Typical value is 840 Field Specific Heat for Gravel This field is the specific heat J kg K of gravel Typical value is 720 Field Specific Heat for Wood This field is the specific heat J kg K of wood Typical value is 1530 Field Thermal Conductivity for Foundation Wall This field is the thermal conductivity W m K of the foundation wall Typical value is 1 4 Field Thermal Conductivity for Floor Slab This field is the thermal conductivity W m K of the floor slab Typical value is 1 4 Field Thermal Conductivity for Ceiling This field is the thermal conductivity W m K of the ceiling Typical value is 0 09 Field Thermal Conductivity for Soil This field is the thermal conductivity W m K of soil Typical val
166. ent or missing components f you have run this input file previously and modified it you may want to examine the modifications carefully Expenenced Users IF YOU are an experienced EnergyPluz user vou may want to activate Pause During Simulation under the View menu and see the name of the software routine in use when the crash occured This is the first routine mentioned in the message after the crash The name of the routine may help vou determine what may have caused the crash Figure 42 EnergyPlus crash within EP Launch EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 177 Auxiliary Programs ini This is the EnergyPlus initialization file It is an optional ascii input file that allows the user to specify the path for the directory containing Energy idd This file using the actual directories of the install will be created during the install Unless you change where the EnergyPlus exe file resides you will not need to change this file epw The EnergyPlus weather file is an ascii file containing the hourly or sub hourly weather data needed by the simulation program The data format is described in detail in the Auxiliary Programs Document It is also described succinctly in the Input Output Reference document Output Files More information and more up to date about output files is shown in the Output Details and Examples Document err A text file containing the error messages issued by EnergyPlus This is the first output that shou
167. eplace With fields will contain the before and after values of the change in the current cell This makes it easy to change other instances in the file to be consistent with the changes just made If renaming objects the recommended approach is to rename the object and select the cell again and open the Search and Replace dialog This will show other places in the file that use that object name that also may need to be changed View Menu The View menu offers options for units and column widths The Narrow Medium Wide Column options set the standard column width for items in the object grid Individual columns can also be resized by dragging the column separator The displayed value is rounded and or expressed in scientific notation to fit within the column width 1 EnergyPlus input files are always in SI units However selecting Inch Pound IP units in the View menu displays and edits values in IP units in the IDF editor The IP unit will be displayed in the units column of the object grid Some SI units convert to multiple IP units For example W becomes Btu hr for heating and cooling capacity but remains as W for lighting and electrical equipment 2 All conversion factors used in the IDF editor are documented in a block of comments near the top of the Energy IDD file 3 Schedules fluid properties and curves now support IP unit conversions For curves the minimum and maximum values are converted but the coefficients are not To display
168. er coefficient units W m2 K field HIN Horizontal convection only heat transfer coefficient units W m2 K field HIN Downward combined convection and radiation heat transfer coefficient units W m2 K field HIN Upward combined convection and radiation heat transfer coefficient units W m2 K field HIN Horizontal combined convection and radiation heat transfer coefficient units W m2 K ComBldg memo ComBldg contains the monthly average temperatures C and possibility of daily variation amplitude N1 N2 N3 field January average temperature units C field February average temperature units C field March average temperature EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 94 Auxiliary Programs units C N4 field April average temperature units C N5 field May average temperature units C N6 field June average temperature units C N7 field July average temperature units C N8 field August average temperature units C N9 field September average temperature units C N10 field October average temperature units C N11 field November average temperature units C N12 field December average temperature units C N13 field Daily variation sine wave amplitude units C note Normally zero just for checking EquivSlab Supplies the EquivSizing Flag Using an equivalent slab allows non rectangular shapes to be modeled accurately The simulation default should be EquivSiz
169. eral years to change from the undisturbed profile to the disturbed profile under a building Field Shape Slab shape Use only the value O here Only a rectangular shape is implemented Field HBLDG Building Height This field supplies the building height This is used to calculate the building shadowing on the ground Height is in meters Field TIN1 TIN12 Indoor Average temperature set point The next twelve fields specify the average indoor building set point temperatures for each month of the year These fields are useful for simulating a building that is not temperature controlled for some of the year In such a case the average indoor set point temperatures can be obtained by first running the model in EnergyPlus with an insulated floor boundary condition and then using the resulting monthly average zone temperatures in these fields Field TINAmp Daily Indoor sine wave variation amplitude This field permits imposing a daily sinusoidal variation in the indoor setpoint temperature to simulate the effect of a setback profile The value specified will be the amplitude of the sine wave EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 84 Auxiliary Programs Field ConvTol Convergence Tolerance This final field specifies the convergence tolerance used to control the iteration When the temperature change of all nodes is less than the convergence value iteration ceases The entire BldgProps Object is shown below BldgProps N1 field IYRS N
170. eratures shows how the OtherSideCoefficients object of EnergyPlus can be used to supply multiple ground temperatures Use of the Ground Temperatures with Slabs The Slab program produces temperature profiles for the outside surface at the core and at the perimeter of the slab It also produces the average based on the perimeter and core areas used in the calculation This allows the user to apply the Slab temperatures one of two ways in EnergyPlus Option 1 Core and Perimeter Temperatures The EnergyPlus OtherSideCoefficients object can be used to provide two sets of twelve monthly average ground temperature values In this way both the perimeter and the core values from the Slab program can be used in the succeeding EnergyPlus run This method assumes that the floor slab will be described using at least two different heat transfer surfaces The use of OtherSideCoefficients to provide additional ground contact surfaces is described in detail in the Multiple Ground Temperatures section below Option 2 Average Temperatures Use the monthly average temperatures produced by the Slab program in the EnergyPlus GroundTemperatures object This will provide an average ground temperature at the outside face of any heat transfer surface whose OutsideFaceEnvironment field is set to ground EnergyPlus accepts twelve separate monthly average inside temperatures In addition it is possible to add an hourly sinusoidal variation of the inside temperat
171. ers The user must fill all the cells colored light blue in worksheet ParamEstimator e Accuracy Start with a low accuracy for faster convergence recommended value of 0 001 e Compressor Type Only reciprocating compressor is currently available in EnergyPlus One might be able to generate parameters for heat pump model with different compressor types but this might result in unrealistic parameters e Refrigerant Contact the manufacturer on the refrigerant used to generate the catalog data and select from the list of refrigerants Usually the refrigerant used is R22 e Which Initial Guess The user may choose a set of initial guesses 1 5 that will be used by the optimization routine in generating the parameters Start with 1 which is the set of initial guess 1 at column B e Initial Guess Initial guess for all the parameters For Initial Guess 1 enter a value of 1 for all the parameters except for the loss factor less than 1 0 The loss factor should be less than 1 0 because the efficiency of the compressor should be less than 10096 Adjust the values in Initial Guess 1 if the program happens to crash and try again e Now click on Button 2 shown below to generate the parameters 2 Generate Parameters It will take some time to generate the parameters depending on the number of data points The parameters generated will be displayed at Parameters 1 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 145 Auxiliary Programs e Look at the erro
172. ersion 8 2 file3 inp line 3a line 3b line 3c line 3d Page 118 Auxiliary Programs Note Up to nine include commands can be nested However there should be no recursion This is an example of a recursion filel inp contains include file2 inp file2 inp contains include filel inp Selectively Accepting or Skipping Lines of Input The if series of commands is used to selectively accept or skip lines of input according to the following sequence if conditioni ineia ineib elseif condition2 ine2a ine2b elseif condition3 ine3a ine3b else line Na line N b endif Then the lines that will be included into the EnergyPlus input stream are If condition 1 is TRUE lineia lineib otherwise If condition 2 is TRUE line2a line2b otherwise If condition 3 is TRUE line3a line3b otherwise If condition 1 condition 2 condition 3 are all FALSE line N a line N b There are six different if commands Command Result ifdef macro name if macro name defined include following lines ifndef macro name if macro name NOT defined include following lines if condition if condition is TRUE include following lines elseif condition if condition is TRUE and previous conditions are FALSE include t else if all previous conditions are FALSE include following lines endif indicates the end of the if block EnergyPlus
173. es using EP Launch The history tab displays the HISTORY CSV file that is located in the same directory as EP Launch If EP Launch seems to be starting slowly it is possible that the history file has grown very large It may be deleted or renamed and a new history file will be automatically created during the next simulation The HISTORY CSV file may also be opened in a spreadsheet program EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 174 Auxiliary Programs Utilities Tab The utilities tab shown in the following figure allows several utility programs that come with EnergyPlus to be used directly More information on each utility is also available in the Auxiliary Programs documentation Eg EP Launch j Single Simulation Group of Simulations History Utilities Utility LEERTE About Basement 3 d ground heat transfer tool used to calculate monthly outside surface temperatures for basement walls and floor The outside surface temperature is at the plane between the outside insulation or the soil if there is no insulation and the basement wall or floor Input File IDF C Atemp B asementE ample idf Browse Edit Text Editor Edit IDF Editor Weather File C EnergyPlus 1 4 0 WeatherD ata USA4_FL_Tampa_TMY2 epw Browse Open AUDIT Open OUT Open CSV Run Basement EnergyPlus 2 0 0 014 Figure 41 EP Launch Utilities Tab For each utility input files can be selected by using the Bro
174. eset All Options and Exit button will clear all options and restore the default values used when first invoking EP Launch for the first time This also clears the list of recently used IDF and weather files This option will exit EP Launch and you will have to start EP Launch again Help Menu The Help menu can be used to open the EnergyPlus documentation files and the EP Launch help file In addition you can check for updates to the EnergyPlus program and other files in the EnergyPlus distribution Recently Used Files The recently used input weather and group file pull down lists can hold a maximum of twenty items These lists like the viewers selected are saved between times you use the EP Launch program Running Groups of Input Files If you are running EnergyPlus on one file or even just a few different files the easiest way to do this is on the Single Simulation tab If you are performing an analysis of a building which requires running EnergyPlus for a larger number of times you may want to consider the Group of Input Files tab shown below You may also want to set the Number of Simultaneous Processes option under View Options Command Window so that the simulations are completed as fast as your computer will allow This tab lets you manage EPG EnergyPlus Group files which contain a list of simulations that need to be performed The EPG file is simply a text file that contains on each line the input file and weather file names to be
175. et simple statistics from CSV output files convertESOMTR convert your outputs to Inch Pound default or other custom unit conversions CalcSoilSurfTemp Program calculate soil surface parameters used in the Earth Tube simulation HVAC Performance Curve Fit Tool generates HVAC performance curves in EnergyPlus IDF format EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 4 Auxiliary Programs Parametric Spreadsheets Parametric spreadsheets are available to help illustrate or calculate some parameters coefficients ParametricPreprocessor Special objects can be inserted in IDF files and generate a series of IDF files from a single source IDF file that contains parametric objects and expressions Unlike using the macro language these input files are capable of being read in the IDF Editor AppGPostProcess Appendix G PostProcessing program The ASHRAE 90 1 Appendix G post processing program takes simulation outputs and processes them to help meet Appendix G requirements BLASTTranslator The BLAST translator can take BLAST Building Loads Analysis and System Ther modynamics input files and make them ready for running in EnergyPlus DOE2Translator The DOE 2 translator can take DOE 2 program input files and make them ready for running in EnergyPlus Running Console Applications this section describes how to run console applications that are part of EnergyPlus and how you might modify these to your specific needs Instructions for running individ
176. ete an object as well as finding and searching The object options are the same operations as can be accomplished by using the New Obj Dup Obj and Del Obj buttons see the Working with Objects section above In addition the Next Row after Enter option can be toggled When this option is on the selection moves down one row after pressing Enter The copy and paste object commands allow a single object to be copied within a file or between files The pasted object appears as the last object in the class This capability makes it easier to utilize the data in the DataSets directory The Find Class menu item brings up the following dialog box used to search through the Class List The Find Class dialog can be used to find class names quickly and can be activated by the CTRL F keyboard combination The Find Previous Class CTRL T and Find Next Class CTRL G can continue the searching process for the next and previous times that the searched text is found in the Class List If you find this option useful you may also want to try the Show Quick Select Dropdowns option under the View menu which also speeds up searching through the Class List The Search and Replace menu item or CTRL H activates the following dialog box The Search and Replace dialog box can be used to find and change each instance of text being searched with some replacement text The Search and Replace dialog is used to search and replace values of fields rather t
177. eter csv leNameRoot G090Meter csv leNameRoot G180Meter csv leNameRoot G270Meter csv leNameRoot G000 Table html leNameRoot G090 Table html leNameRoot G180Table html leNameRoot G270Table html Eh Eh th Eb th Eh Eh Eh Eh Eth th th EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 155 Auxiliary Programs Where fileNameRoot can be the characters typically used to name files without extension A single command line argument is passed to the AppGPostProcess utility which is the name of one of the HTML les T he remaining file names will be used based on any of the HTML files selected fi The utility creates the files fileNameRoot GAVG csv fileNameRoot GAVGMeter csv fileNameRoot GAVGTable html The numeric values in the output files are the average results from the four corresponding source files In the HTML file if not all the four files contain a numeric value then the four values are displayed instead The source files must have identical structure for AppGPostProcess to work For CSV files the same number of rows and the same number of columns are needed each file This means that monthly or hourly values should be included in the CSV file and not TimeStep values For HTML files the same reports should be included in each and the IDF files should be identical The intention is that the four baseline IDF files would be identical except for the use of the Compli ance Building object and only the value of the field Building Rotation for App
178. ew factors 3 causes dumping of some intermediate values The values of the parameters shown on the interface sheets are reasonable defaults and they should need to be adjusted only rarely In the upper right corner of either sheet is a button that causes two files to be generated and View3D to be executed The two files generated are the input file that uses the name from cell D13 with the extension vs3 and a file with the same name and an extension dxf VoloView can be used with this file to generate a wire frame drawing of the zone being analyzed Two paths are needed for executing the program The directory path where the vs3 and dxf files will be placed is specified in cell D11 This directory can be selected using the Browse button in cell B11 The path to the View3D exe program is specified by cell D15 This directory can be selected with the Browse button in cell B15 If you are using the ZoneSheet the zone surfaces are described in the region from row 17 to row 27 Each column supplies the details for one surface Additional surface columns can be added by copying and pasting a desired starting column to the right of column H If either the surface height or base surface length is zero the gross area cell will be zero and column is ignored The facing direction of the surface is the direction an inward normal to the surface would point So the south wall of a zone faces north or 0 degrees Note that this is different from EnergyPlus wher
179. f you name your files appropriately And it can use ExpandObjects to expand the special HVACTemplate objects into normal IDF objects The set statements near the beginning of the procedure file can be customized for each local system Thus program path should be set to the directory path where the program executable resides on your local computer program name should be set to the name of the EnergyPlus executable file input_ path should be set to the directory path containing the input IDF file and so forth Each of the path environment variables must have as the final character or things won t run correctly As mentioned before the batch file is executed by typing RunEPlus input filename weather filename where input filename is the name of the IDF file without the file extension and weather filename is the name of the weather file without the file extension The input filename can also be a complete path to the file without extension and it will work In addition RunEPlus can be called from a different directory and the temporary files will be created in the directory it is called from This enables multiple RunEPlus bat to be used with multiple processors or a multiple core processor without the temporary files of one set of simulations interfering with another Each call to RunEPlus bat should be from different directories Instructions appear at the top of the batch file In
180. file name with the extension expidf EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 131 Auxiliary Programs HVAC Template Objects Processed The HVACTemplate objects that are currently read by the ExpandObjects preprocessor are e HVACTemplate Thermostat HVACTemplate Zone IdealLoadsAirSystem e HVACTemplate Zone FanCoil e HVACTemplate Zone PTAC e HVACTemplate Zone PTHP e HVACTemplate Zone Unitary e HVACTemplate Zone VAV e HVACTemplate Zone VAV FanPowered e HVACTemplate Zone WatertoAirHeatPump e HVACTemplate System Unitary e HVACTemplate System UnitaryHeatPump AirToAir e HVACTemplate System VAV e HVACTemplate System Packaged VAV e HVACTemplate System DedicatedOutdoorAir e HVACTemplate Plant ChilledWaterLoop e HVACTemplate Plant Chiller e HVACTemplate Plant Chiller ObjectReference e HVACTemplate Plant Tower e HVACTemplate Plant Tower ObjectReference e HVACTemplate Plant HotWaterLoop e HVACTemplate Plant Boiler e HVACTemplate Plant Boiler ObjectReference Ground Heat Transfer Objects Processed The GroundHeatTransfer objects that are currently read by the ExpandObjects preprocessor are e GroundHeatTransfer Control e GroundHeatTransfer Slab Materials e GroundHeatTransfer Slab MatlProps e GroundHeatTransfer Slab BoundConds e GroundHeatTransfer Slab BldgProps e GroundHeatTransfer Slab Insulation e GroundHeatTransfer Slab EquivalentSlab e GroundHeatTransfer Slab AutoGrid e GroundHeatTransfer Slab Manu
181. ft 0 304785126485827 m2 m gt ft2 ft 3 281 L day gt pint day 2 11337629827348 L kWh gt pint kWh 2 11337629827348 kg Pa s m2 gt lb psi s ft2 1412 00523459398 m hr gt ft hr 3 281 Mode gt Mode 1 Control gt Control 1 Availability gt Availability al rev min gt rev min 1 W m3 s gt W ft3 min 0 0004719475 VA gt VA d N m gt lbf in 8 85074900525547 m3 s W gt ft3 h min Btu 621 099127332943 cm2 gt inch2 0 15500031000062 kg m gt lb ft 0 67196893069637 m yr gt inch yr 39 37 Other conversions supported needs the ip units code m gt in 39 37 W gt W 1 m3 s gt gal min 15852 m3 s gt 1bH20 hr 7936289 998 Pa gt inHg 0 00029613 Pa gt inH20 0 00401463 Pa gt ftH20 0 00033455 W person gt W person 1 W m2 gt W m2 1 W m2 gt W ft2 0 0928939733269818 W m K gt Btu h ft F 0 577796066000163 deg hr A dimensionless V ohms A V eV percent s W m2 or deg C W m2 W or deg C minutes 1 hr Units fields that are not translated Kk kK K kK k k kK K K kK k K K K K kK K K K k k K K K k k K K K kK k K K K k kK 3K K K k kK 3K K 2K oko oko K K k ok oko ok K oe oko oe oe ok k k K K K oe K K K K K ke ES IDFEditor IDF Editor is an optional component of the EnergyPlus installation For users who want a simple way of creating or editing EnergyPlus input data files IDF IDF Editor provides this service The IDF Editor does not check inputs for validity
182. g is KML Keyhole Markup Language file that can be used with Google Earth to pinpoint the locations of the weather site This field can be used to set this URL for later output The list file format also includes a URL as its third optional parameter If included this input would overwrite other URL designations Table 6 Definitions file amp wthdata description amp wthdataField Description Field Name Type Input File Type InputFileType String Number of records per hour NumInHour Integer Data Element Names DataElements Strings Data Units DataUnits Strings Multiplicative Conversion Factors for Data DataConversionFactors Numeric Special Missing Values DataMissing Values Numeric Format for input InFormat Format String or delimited Delimiter Character DelimiterChar Decimal Delimiter Character DecimalSymbolChar String Date Separator DateSeparator String single character Expected Formats for amp wthdata Field InputFileType You can always use this field and def file to override the default input format type that depends on the extension of your file see Table 2 Input File Extensions with implied Data types A complete set of valid values for Input File types is shown in the following table Data Files are described more fully in the section Source Weather Data Formats that occurs later in this document Table 7 Input File Type Values Value File Type Description Tmy or tm2 TMY2 Data File Iwec or iwc IWE
183. ge temperature set point C 18 TIN3 March Indoor Average temperature set point C 20 TIN4 April Indoor Average temperature set point C 20 TIN5 May Indoor Average temperature set point C 20 TIN6 June Indoor Average temperature set point C 22 TIN7 July Indoor Average temperature set point C 22 TIN8 August Indoor Average temperature set point C 22 TIN9 September Indoor Average temperature set point C 22 TIN10 October Indoor Average temperature set point C 20 TIN11 NovemberIndoor Average temperature set point C 20 TIN12 December Indoor Average temperature set point C 0 TINAmp Daily sine wave variation amplitude C 0 10 ConvTol Convergence Tolerance ALL OBJECTS IN CLASS INSULATION Insulation 05 c RINS R value of under slab insulation m2 K W Des DINS Width of strip of under slab insulation m 2 0 RVINS R value of vertical insulation m2 K W 2 0 ZVINS Depth of vertical insulation m 155 IVINS Flag Is there vertical insulation i ALL OBJECTS IN CLASS EQUIVSLAB EquivalentSlab Hos APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab m OS SLABDEPTH Thickness of slab on grade m 15 CLEARANCE Distance from edge of slab to domain edge m 10 ZCLEARANCE Distance from bottom of slab to domain bottom Using Ground Temperatures with Basements The basement routine is used to calculate
184. gle Simulation tab will NOT open output files using this option instead use the History tab to open files The exact location that the output files will be written is defined below using the codes shown No extension should be included Location ZI input file name J input file path y ZG group file name H group file path ZW weather file name ZA weather file path Repeat IMF File Simulations 1 v ZN repeat number for IMF files Figure 39 EP Launch Step 4 of New Group Wizard EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 173 Auxiliary Programs When the group of input file simulations is running the title bar of EP Launch will show the progress History of Simulations Performed The History tab allows you to see what files were associated with a particular simulation that was performed The list shows the date and time of the simulation along with the input and weather file names lol File Edit View Help Single Simulation Group of Simulations History ES 2004 ug 02 13 59 28 5Zone amp irCooled idf AZone irCooled_1 2004 4ug 02 13 59 46 5ZoneAirCooled idf USA _CO_Boulder_TMY2 epw amp Zone amp irCooled 1 2004 Aug 02 13 59 56 5Zone amp uto idf amp Zone amp uto 1 2004 4ug 02 14 19 50 1ZonelUncontrolled idf 12oneUncontrolled_1 2004 Aug 02 14 19 55 3zvent idf 3zwent_1 2004 4ug 02 14 20 17 3zventidf US4_CA San Francisco_TMY2 epw USA_CA San 2004 Aug 02 14 20 43 3zventidf USA_CO_Boulder_TMY2 ep
185. go quickly to different classes in the main list of classes By typing in the top input field the group that starts with those letters are displayed After selecting one and pressing the tab button classes in that group are shown and by typing the first few letters you can easily select a specific class Pressing tab again displays that class and it objects This method allows for quick selection of classes if you remember the group name and class name Changing Values By clicking and highlighting a value within an object several things happen 1 Any user comments from the IDF file will be displayed in the Comments from IDF portion of the screen 2 Any notes contained in the IDD for this input field will be displayed in the Explanation of Keyword portion of the screen 3 The value can be edited Depending on the field a drop down list may display the default value maximum and minimum or other keywords that can be used with the field 4 Numeric fields that can be autosized will include autosize as a selection in the drop down list 5 Some numeric fields have a maximum and or minimum value specified in the IDD If the value entered is outside this range the cell will be highlighted in pale orange 6 For values that are names of nodes a new dialog box titled Edit or Select Node Name can be shown when the small button is pressed that is on the right side in each node name cell as described in the next section EnergyPlu
186. han classes like the Find Class dialog To use the Search and Replace dialog enter the text being searched EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 194 Auxiliary Programs w Find Class Cancel Figure 46 Find Class Dialog Box Search and Replace Fed at WO Match Entire Field Value Contents All _None WDO1 Material 4W D01 Name WDO1 Construction 7 ROOF 1 Layer 4 IWDO1 Construction WALL 1 Outside Layer Replace with MatwD01 Replace Selected Figure 47 Search and Replace Diaglog Box EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 195 Auxiliary Programs in the Find What field and press the Find button After the Find button is pressed the list shows the places in the file that the text appears For each time the text is found the entire field value is shown followed by the class name name of the object and the name of the field in parentheses Each item in the list can be selected using the check box to the left The All and None buttons will select all or none of the items found After the locations are selected that need to be replaced you should enter the text in the Replace With field When the Replace Selected button is pressed the value in each of locations that were checked will be replaced with the Replace with text The dialog will usually open with the Find What field filled with the value of the currently selected cell If the current cell has just been changed the Find What and the R
187. hange 0 91m s Std Dev 0 88m s EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 10 Auxiliary Programs Hourly Dry Bulb temperature change trigger minimum of 12 13 C and 10 C 12 13 C calculated trigger based on mean change in dry bulb temperature and standard deviation shown above 10 C trigger set by user Here the calculated DB trigger would be 12 13 C but the user chosen trigger is 10 C Changes gt 10 C will be reported Delta DB DP Range Triggered for Apr 30 Change in DB 11 60 C Hour 14 Such detail allows the user to hand edit the incoming data if desired Delete File You may use this menu option to browse your computer and delete files Input Folder Output Folder Choosing this option a check will show and will carry over from one use to the next sets the output folder for saving files to be the same as the input folder where the original files are located Exit This choice exits the program Converting Data This screen is automatically shown when you start the program it will allow you to select raw data for processing change the default type based on file extension select the kind of conversion you want select where and what name to store for the processed data and process the data An almost completed screen shows The screen is navigated by choosing the following buttons on the left portion of the screen Interpretation from the program is shown in the status boxes on the right portion of the screen
188. hange 3 50 Std Dev 3 63 Average Delta Wind Speed Change 0 93m s Std Dev 0 88m s Hourly Dry Bulb temperature change trigger minimum of 11 07 C and 10 C 11 07 C calculated trigger based on mean change in dry bulb temperature and standard deviation shown above 10 C trigger set by user Output File Type epw with FileName D DevTests Release WeatherData Out CAN_Ottawa International Airport CWEC epw Output File Type csv with FileName D DevTests Release WeatherData Out CAN_Ottawa International_Airport_CWEC csv Statistical Report File As will be seen in comparison with a statistical report shown following the audit file may contain some details about the data that the statistical report does not such as the data years for the weather data Some basic statistics are shown first EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 28 Auxiliary Programs Statistics for USA CA San Francisco Intl AP 724940 TMY3 Location San Francisco Intl Ap CA USA N 37 37 W 122 24 GMT 8 0 Hours Elevation 2m above sea level Standard Pressure at Elevation 101301Pa Data Source TMY3 WMO Station 724940 Displaying Design Conditions from Climate Design Data 2009 ASHRAE Handbook ASHRAE design conditions are carefully generated from a period of record typically 30 years to be representative of that location and to be suitable for use in heating cooling load calculations Design Stat ColdestMonth DB996 DB990 DP996 HR
189. hdata NumInHour 1 InputFileType CUSTOM InFormat DELIMITED DataElements Ignore Year Month Day Hour Ignore DryBulb DewPoint Ignore Relative Humidity Ignore DirNorRad DifHorRad WindDir Wind Speed OpaqSkyCvr Atmos Pressure DataUnits x x X X X X k k x A x wh m2 wh m2 deg m s x Pa DataCconversionbactors ci 1515151 5 1515 iiO DelimiterChar amp datacontrol NumRecordsToSkip 0 MaxNumRecordsToRead 8760 ii Listing 4 DEF File for delimited custom file Suppose you have a file that is almost TMY2 format You can easily specify a Def file to treat it as a custom file rather than a TMY2 file which by standards will have the data filled EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 23 Auxiliary Programs amp location City lt cityname gt StateProv lt state province gt Country lt country gt InWMO lt wmo gt InLat lt latitude gt InLong lt longitude gt InElev lt elevation gt InTime lt timezone gt amp wthdata NumInHour 1 InputFileType CUSTOM InFormat 1X 12 12 12 12 14 14 14 A2 14 A2 14 A2 14 A2 14 A2 14 A2 14 A2 12 A2 12 A2 14 A2 14 A2 13 A2 14 A2 13 A2 13 A2 14 A2 15 A2 11 A9 13 A2 13 A2 13 A2 12 A2 DataElements ignore year month day hour ExtHorzRad ExtDirNormRad GloHorzRad ignore DirNormRad ignore DifHorzRad ignore GloHorzIllum ignore DirNormI1lum ignore DifHorzIllum ignore ZenithLum ignore ignore ignore ignore ignore DryBulb ignore DewPoint ignore RelHu
190. he edge of the area that will be modeled with the grid system It is the basic size dimension that is used to set both the horizontal and vertical extent of the domain The units are meters and 15 meters is a reasonable value The EquivAutoGrid object is shown below EquivAutoGrid memo EquivAutoGrid only necessary when EquivSizing is true memo EnergyPlus users normally use this option N1 field SLABDEPTH Thickness of slab on grade note typical value 0 1 units m N2 field CLEARANCE Distance from edge of slab to domain edge note typical value 15 0 units m Additional Objects There are five additional objects in the IDD that can be used under very special situations by researchers who want to generate special calculation grids They are normally not useful to EnergyPlus users They will be shown as IDD sections only They do not need to be in the IDF AutoGrid memo AutoGrid only necessary when EquivSizing is false memo Not normally needed by EnergyPlus users Ni field SLABX X dimension of the building slab note typical values 0 60 0 units m N2 field SLABY Y dimension of the building slab EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 88 Auxiliary Programs note typical values 0 60 0 Nunits m N3 field SLABDEPTH Thickness of slab on grade note typical value 1 Nunits m N4 field CLEARANCE Distance from edge of slab to domain edge note typical value 15 0 Nunits m ManualGrid memo Manual Grid only necessary u
191. he expansion is printed This can produce lots of output noshowdetail Stop printing each macro expansion This is the default condition expandcomment Comment fields may contain macro expansion directions Following this command the macros will be expanded in comments For example you might have seti Location Colorado Springs CO Simulation run for Location If expandcomment preceded the setl command then the output would look like Simulation run for Colorado Springs CO EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 123 Auxiliary Programs noexpandcomment This does not expand macros in comment fields This is the default condition 7 traceback Give full traceback when printing an error message After this command if there is a EP MACRO error a full traceback of the macro expansions in progress is printed This is the default condition 7 notraceback Don t give full traceback when printing an error message write Start writing expanded text into file 22 This is similar to 7show except that the expanded lines are written into file 22 Therefore file 22 will contain only the text that will be seen by the EnergyPlus processor This file is used only for debugging purposes It allows you to see what the macro processed input file looks like nowrite Stop writing expanded text into file 22 This is the default condition symboltable Prints table of current macro names All of the macro names that a
192. he loss factor should be less than 1 0 because the efficiency of the compressor should be less than 10096 Adjust the values in Initial Guess 1 if the program happens to crash and try again e Now click on Button 2 shown below to generate the parameters 2 Generate Parameters It will take some time to generate the parameters depending on the number of data points The parameters generated will be displayed at Parameters 1 e Look at the error analysis of Error 1 which gives the user a summary of the errors for Heating Capacity Heating Absorption and Power An average error of 5 896 is achievable for all the values e The errors for all the individual catalog data points are displayed in worksheet RESULT EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 152 Auxiliary Programs Step 2b Improving the Set of Parameters PE Based Model e After the initial set of parameters has been generated the user can increase the accuracy of the parameters by using parameters generated as the initial guess for the second simulation and increasing the accuracy of the program e Copy and Paste Parameters 1 to Initial Guess 2 Change the initial guess indicator Which Initial Guess from 1 to 2 e Increase the accuracy by twice For example set accuracy to 0 000001 e Now click on Button 2 shown below to generate the second set of parameters 2 Generate Parameters The simulation time would most likely be less but it depends on the accuracy value as w
193. hould be able to be run at the same time For a computer with multiple processors or multiple cores this will allow better utilization of the computers power The value selected should correspond to the number of processors cores but higher or lower number can be used as well Disable Multi Threading Check this box if you wish to disable the built in multi threading capabilities of EnergyPlus Portions of EnergyPlus have been programmed to use more than one processor or CPU core at the same time during a single simulation This multithreading may not be desirable when running more than one simulation at a time on the same computer because it can actually run more slowly When this check box is checked multi threading is turned off The check box sets the EP_OMP_NUM_THREADS EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 167 Auxiliary Programs environmental variable to 1 The multi threading capability of EnergyPlus can also be controlled using the ProgramControl object field called Number of Threads Allowed That field takes precedence over the setting of the checkbox Also note that when multiple simulations are started from EP Launch this automatically disables multithreading by setting the EP OMP NUM THREADS environmental variable to 1 whether this box is checked or not The ProgramControl object is described in the Input Output Reference document Interface Options Extra Wide Window Select this option to make the main EP Launch window wider This i
194. housandths N snowdepth snow depth cm Y days last snow days since last snow N Albedo albedo N liq precip depth liquid precip depth mm Y liq precip rate liquid precip rate Hour N The following table illustrates that the EnergyPlus CSV header names can be used for data elements in DEF files if desired Table 9 Names from the EnergyPlus CSV files Default Used by Short Name Long Name EPW Units EnergyPlus Date Date used to derive Month Day N hh mm HH MM used to derive hour minute N datasource datasource N Drybulb dry bulb temperature C Y dewpoint dew point temperature C Y Relhum relative humidity Y atmos pressure atmospheric pressure Pa Y exthorzrad extraterrestrial horizontal radiation Wh m N extdirrad extraterrestrial direct normal radiation Wh m N horzirsky horizontal infrared radiation intensity Wh m Y from sky glohorzrad global horizontal radiation Wh m N dirnorzrad direct normal radiation Wh m Y difhorzrad diffuse horizontal radiation Wh m Y glohorzillum global horizontal illuminance lux N dirnorzillum direct normal illuminance lux N difhorzillum diffuse horizontal illuminance lux N Zenlum zenith luminance lux N winddir wind direction degrees Y windspd wind speed m s Y totskycvr total sky cover tenths N opaqskycvr opaque sky cover tenths N visibility visibility km N ceiling hgt ceiling height m N presweathobs present weather observation Y presweathcodes present weather codes Y precip wtr pr
195. ia Springfield Virginia NTIS Zhang Q Y Y J Huang 2002 Development of Typical Year Weather Files for Chinese Locations in ASHRAE Transactions Volume 108 Part 2 Web Resources Building Energy Tools Directory a directory of information on 3404 energy tools from around the world http www energytoolsdirectory gov Energy Systems Research Unit University of Strathclyde authors of ESP r up to date information on ESP r and other energy systems research and software development http www strath ac uk Departments ESRU EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 73 Auxiliary Programs EnergyPlus up to date information on the current status of EnergyPlus and working with the team and documentation such as input data structure output data structure and licensing opportunities Additional weather files may be posted here as well http www energyplus gov Description of the SWERA project http swera unep net swera Weather Analytics www wxaglobal com Site specific weather files in EnergyPlus format based on the latest 30 years of hourly data are now available from the private sector company Weather Analytics for any official weather station or over 600 000 35 km grid tiles across the globe These files are built by integrating hourly weather station observations and the new NOAA reanalysis data sets Both Typical Meteorological Year TMY files and individual Actual Meteorological Year AMY files are available as well
196. iary Programs Step 1 Catalog Data Input Data points are obtained from the heat pump manufacturer data Minimum data points for the parameter estimation based model are 32 data points according to Jin 2002 The curve fit model performance is not affected by the number of data points and a minimum of 6 data points is required since the sensible cooling capacity requires 6 coefficients The data points must have varying inlet conditions e g air flow rates inlet water temperatures and etc that covers the entire range of the heat pump operating conditions Correction tables provided by the manufacturer should be used to extend the catalog data range in order to have a good set of parameters coefficients Using the heat pump performance data enter the values to Table 1 in worksheet CATALOG DATA The values can be in SI or IP units e Click on Button 1 based on the units used For IP units 1 Generate Input from catalog data IP For SI units 1 Generate Input from catalog data S1 e The program will convert the values to the desired units and display them on Table 2 in worksheet INPUT Then the program will discard bad catalog points by calculating the relative humidity of the exiting air at the load side relative humidity should be less or equal to 1 Table 3 in work sheet INPUT shows the input catalog data that will be used by the parameter coefficient generator program The button shown below
197. ients ExampleOSC NoSun NoWind 0519 5 4 OOO 6 096 0 0 6 096 0 4 572 0 0 4 572 User Supplied Surface Name Surface Type Construction Name of the Surface Zone Outside Boundary Condition Outside Boundary Condition Object Sun Exposure Wind Exposure View Factor to Ground Number of Vertices Vertex 1 X Y Z coordinates m Vertex 2 X Y Z coordinates m Vertex 3 X Y Z coordinates m Vertex 4 X Y Z coordinates m The OtherSideCoefficients object has to supply the basic form of the environment Note that the name corresponds to thee name in the Surface object This object also supplies the name of a schedule that will provide the monthly ground temperature values SurfaceProperty OtherSideCoefficients Ex 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 G gt EnergyPlus Version 8 2 ampleOSC roundTempCompactSched OtherSideCoeff Name Combined convective radiative film coefficient User selected Constant Temperature C Coefficient modifying the user selected constant temperature Coefficient modifying the external dry bulb temperature Coefficient modifying the ground temperature Coefficient modifying the wind speed term s m Coefficient modifying the zone air temperature part of the equation Schedule Name for values of const temperature Schedule values replace N2 Page 104 Auxiliary Programs The schedule named in the last field of th
198. ignificant development advances in simulation capabilities these programs use the same climate representations as in the past a simple set of hourly temperature humidity wind speed and direction and atmospheric pressure and solar radiation or cloud cover data These data are often typical data derived from hourly observations at a specific location by the national weather service or meteorological office Examples of these typical data include TMY2 NREL 1995 and WYEC2 ASHRAE 1997 in the United States and Canada and TRY CEC 1985 in Europe The TMY2 and WYEC2 typical weather years contain more solar radiation and illumination data than older formats such as TMY NCDC 1983 WYEC ASHRAE 1985 and TRY NCDC 1981 in the U S Crawley 1998 demonstrated that the methods used to select data for the US TMY2 and European TRY data sets better fits the long term climate patterns Radiation and illumination data are becoming increasingly necessary in simulation programs Anyone who has ever attempted to measure daylight factors will be familiar with the fluctuations in lighting levels under partly cloudy conditions The expansion and contraction of lightweight building components also shares EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 5 Auxiliary Programs sensitivity to rapid fluctuations in solar radiation Single sided ventilation is dependant on wind pressure fluctuations and pedestrians in many cities are acquainted with the disarming tendency of the
199. ilding Industry Publishing House ISBN 7 112 07273 3 13228 http www china building com cn Commission of the European Community 1985 Test Reference Years Weather data sets for computer simulations of solar energy systems and energy consumption in buildings CEC DG XII Brussels Belgium Commission of the European Community Crawley Drury B Linda K Lawrie Curtis O Pedersen Richard J Liesen Daniel E Fisher Richard K Strand Russell D Taylor Frederick C Winkelmann W F Buhl A Ender Erdem and Y Joe Huang 1999 EnergyPlus A New Generation Building Energy Simulation Program in Proceedings of Building Simulation 99 Kyoto Japan IBPSA Crawley Drury B 1998 Which Weather Data Should You Use for Energy Simulations of Commercial Buildings ASHRAE Transactions pp 498 515 Vol 104 Pt 2 Atlanta ASHRAE http energyplus gov pdfs bibliography whichweatherdatashouldyouuseforenergysimulations pdf Crawley Drury B Jon Hand and Linda K Lawrie 1999 Improving the Weather Information Available to Simulation Programs in Proceedings of Building Simulation 99 Kyoto Japan September 1999 IBPSA Energy Simulation Research Unit 1999 http www strath ac uk Departments ESRU Janak M 1997 Coupling Building Energy and Lighting Simulation in Proceedings of Building Simulation 977 September 1997 Volume II pp 313 319 Prague Czech Republic IBPSA K ppen W 1931 Grundriss der Klimakunde
200. ineDriven powderblue ChillerHeater A bsorption DirectFired powderblue Coil Cooling DX MultiSpeed skyblue Coil Cooling DX SingleSpeed skyblue Coil Cooling Water skyblue Coil Cooling Water DetailedGeometry skyblue Coil Cooling Water ToAirHeatPump EquationFit skyblue Coil Cooling WaterToAirHeatPump ParameterEstimation skyblue Coil Heating DX SingleSpeed skyblue Coil Heating Electric salmon Coil Heating Gas salmon Coil Heating Water salmon Coil Heating WaterToAirHeatPump EquationFit salmon Coil Heating WaterToAirHeatPump ParameterEstimation salmon Connector Mixer lightgreen Connector Splitter wheat Controller OutdoorAir none Controller WaterCoil none CoolingTower SingleSpeed pink Dehumidifier Desiccant NoFans tan District Cooling none District Heating none EvaporativeCooler Direct CelDekPad aliceblue EvaporativeCooler Indirect CelDekPad aliceblue EvaporativeCooler Indirect ResearchSpecial aliceblue Fan Constant Volume silver Fan OnOff silver Fan VariableVolume silver Fan ZoneExhaust silver Generator Combustion Turbine orange Generator InternalCombustionEngine orange GroundHeatExchanger Pond paleturquoise GroundHeatExchanger Surface paleturquoise GroundHeatExchanger Vertical paleturquoise HeatExchanger AirToAir Flat Plate paleturquoise HeatExchanger AirToAir SensibleAndLatent paleturquoise HeatExchanger Hydronic paleturquoise HeatPump WaterToWater EquationFit Cooling lightslategray HeatPump WaterToWater EquationFit Heating lightsla
201. ing Climed Portuguese software developed by Ricardo Aguiar from mean monthly data coming from the Spanish Meteorological National Institute These weather files were converted from the DOE 2 binary to EnergyPlus format and include constant wind speeds of 6 7 m s For more information on these weather files contact Profesor Luis P rez Lombard lpl tmt us es Escuela Superior de Ingenieros Italian Climatic data collection Gianni De Giorgio IGDG Developed for use in simulating renewable energy technologies this set of 66 weather files is based on a 1951 1970 period of record The data were created by Professor Livio Mazzarella Politecnico di Milano and is named in honor of Gianni de Giorgio Chinese Typical Year Weather CTYW Developed for use in simulating building heating and air conditioning loads and energy use and for calculating renewable energy utilization this set of 57 weather files is based on a 1982 1997 period of record with data obtained from the U S National Climatic Data Center The data were created by Prof ZHANG Qingyuan of Tsukuba University Japan in collaboration with Joe Huang of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory The original typical year weather files are contained in Zhang Qingyuan and Joe Huang 2004 Chinese Typical Year Weather Data for Architectural Use in Chinese ISBN 7 111 14810 X Beijing China Machine Press Available from China Machine Press No 22 Baiwanzhuang Dajie Beijing CHINA 100037
202. ing True Ni field APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab units m A1 Mfield EquivSizing Flag note Will the dimensions of an equivalent slab be calculated TRUE note or will the dimensions be input directly FALSE note Only advanced special simulations should use FALSE EquivAutoGrid memo EquivAutoGrid necessary when EquivSizing TRUE TRUE is is the normal case Ni field CLEARANCE Distance from outside of wall to edge of 3 D ground domain Nunits m note typical value 15m N2 field SlabDepth Thickness of the floor slab units m note typical value 0 1m N3 field BaseDepth Depth of the basement wall below grade units m Loa The following input objects are required only for special cases AutoGrid NOTE AutoGrid only necessary when EquivSizing is false If the modelled building is not a rectangle or square Equivalent sizing MUST be used to get accurate results N1 field CLEARANCE Distance from outside of wall to edge 15m N2 field SLABX X dimension of the building slab 0 60 0 m N3 field SLABY Y dimension of the building slab 0 60 0 m N4 field ConcAGHeight Height of the fndn wall above grade m N5 field SlabDepth Thickness of the floor slab m 0 1 N6 field BaseDepth Depth of the basement wall below grade m ManualGrid NOTE Manual Grid only necessary using manual gridding not recommended Ni field NX Number of cells in the X direction 20 N2 field NY
203. int where the value should be 1 0 and performance maps for the curves both DOE 2 and EnergyPlus There is an example input file and an example output file installed with the program CoeffCheck CoeffCheck is a program to print out a performance map given a bi quadratic performance curve EP Launch can be used to run the CoeffCheck program CoeffCheck is one of the options on the Utilities tab in EP Launch See the EP Launch section in this document for more information on how to use EP Launch with the CoeffCheck program When using EP Launch to run CoeffCheck the input file must have the file extension cci and will create an output file with the file extension cco You can also run the CoeffCheck program as a console application The input file then must be from file CoeffCheckInput txt status OLD There are 6 lines of ascii input For example VarSpeedCoolCapFt 0 476428E 00 0 401147E 01 0 226411E 03 0 827136E 03 0 732240E 05 0 446278E 03 12 777778 23 888889 23 888889 46 111111 19 444444 35 0 2 777778 The 1st line is the user selected name of the curve The 2nd line contains the 6 biquadratic curve coefficients comma separated The 3rd line contains the min and max values of the 1st independent variable comma separated EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 130 Auxiliary Programs The 4th line contains the min and max values of the 2nd independent variable comma separated The 5th line contains the rated values of the 1s
204. int temperatures C JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec OO SO CIN CSS O SO DI O OM dass O a0 Beil LEO 2200 CoS Gl Tol Del Do Se 1041 329 aos S S 50 hb 2EQUE eoo 9 9 Wok We BoA De e 10 0 112 32425 Boil Wie 1559 SUO E OMNE Gell Ws SE OS E TC ODO GeO Bes HOT L300 1st Lo aS GeO Cee Ost dil Ages Shoal 458 ols Eod Geo 15 9 ol els ul D 6 101 Moi 3242 Ll 728 Bail SHOl 200 G0 Ber eG oly Oar iss WO Ml SG dase Soy ok Bub OT 309 LS Gi tet oe Der 1056 10 5 1 5 dao Ms fel Gaul SEO O0 Wok Oot thet BuO TOs WO als ayo dace Ms 8 2 Bos ONES Oso Sail ss ets how err ies OA le 2 NOs Wao Cas AO SOMMER OO Seth rl Gey lay ES MOS Mal IO deal e eS O isla SS Gs 853 eG 105 10 06 tido dos dea ul Bl 12 12 04 fiar 00 Coe Bel ES lob 0 Woo alo 1 0 doe 0 2 Gee Bold ASSO OO Sess GS Wl lair Eb 10 2 1146 Wilt AS Cosh oth 00 d 350453008 E SS E sD NIORT 5E 2rd SS Oram Ora AG SOUUSROC 16 10 GeO TAC SO Woe abil 4h Wile A se Sols 0 IEA Sa TL et hots DO Wath Mya O E Wass 250 Bos Ger illo ES Ge 1653 13 0 06 aloo Wile dass oe Doth Go ASSO MRO Cab ES ESO AO CO RS dass B50 Geil Csi IDG 20 20 0M Ob Oh fo G20 Sas 00 WOs Mos 124 O52 Bo Ges 20150415 2 45 00 60 05 32 olf So 06 10 0 alos dee oS Beh 042 205501 22 008 65 6 0 Soil Ges Do 02 a 4 Ao eS E 10 PAVO 5s als Bes BO Warr Der M0 slats deed ws Bodh Oy PRA PU FAS aly cet toil 6 20 10 3 107 ded 0 Eb Sef Max Hour 22 16 9 9 9 10 14 10 11 9 18 19 Min Hour 6 6 3 16 16 5 4 24 4 15 3 5 Humid
205. ion The Date field e g 1983 1 1 uses your standard system date for formatting In the EPW file these are three separate fields year month and day in this example The time field combines the hours and minutes into one field hh mm This makes it easier for graphing with spreadsheet programs but a bit harder if you use the CSV format as input Each data item field obeys the same missing and other content rules as shown above in the EnergyPlus Weather File EPW Data Dictionary The figure above shows how the EnergyPlus EPW CSV file initial header records looks when opened in a spreadsheet Each header record is shown in bold with data following the headers The above figure shows how the data periods header record and the individual data records look when opened in a spread sheet Again the headers are shown in bold Note that there are two header records for the data records one with short names one with longer more descriptive names Missing Weather File Data The following data contains missing descriptors a new concept not introduced previously in our IDD conventions In this case it will be processed as though those values are missing in the weather conversions This may not always be desirable though the weather processor will fill in missing value with something appropriate Eventually these missing values will be available through the weather processor Until then the following are used for in
206. irst instance of the extensible field set is marked with begin extensible begin extensible See previous item marks beginning of extensible fields in an object format The object should have a special format when saved in the IDF Editor with the special format option enabled The options include SingleLine Vertices CompactSchedule FluidProperties ViewFactors and Spectral The SingleLine option puts all the fields for the object on a single line The Vertices option is used in objects that use X Y and Z fields to format those three fields on a single line The CompactSchedule formats that specific object The FluidProperty option formats long lists of fluid properties to ten values per line The ViewFactor option formats three fields related to view factors per line The Spectral option formats the four fields related to window glass spectral data per line reference class name Adds the name of the class to the reference list similar to reference Group level comments group Name for a group of related objects Notes on comments 1 If a particular comment is not applicable such as units or default then simply omit the comment rather than indicating N A 2 Memos and notes should be brief recommend 5 lines or less per block More extensive explanations are expected to be in the user documentation EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 187 Auxiliary Programs Default IP conversions no ip units necessary
207. is for a drawing If the Show DXF File After Created check box is check when the Create DXF from IDF button is pressed the drawing will be viewed immediately after the DXF file is created Normally the viewer for DXF files is automatically found but if the program cannot find a drawing viewer program you can select one manually on the Options Tab Es EPDrawGUI Options i View DXF File Polvgans with 5 Sides C attempt Triangulation 5 Thick Polyline 5 Regular Polyline O wireframe Select OXF Viewer version 0 06 Figure 25 EPDrawGUI Options Tab Option Tab The Option Tab shown in Figure 31 contains an additional option to control some complex drawings as well as ways to select the DXF file viewer and view DXF files The View DXF File button is used to select a previously created DXF file and view it with the DXF file viewer The DXF viewer is usually found automatically but if this function does not work you may want to select the DXF file viewer manually using the Select DXF Viewer button EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 115 Auxiliary Programs The Select DXF Viewer button allows you to manually select the program used to display DXF files Normally it is not necessary to use this function since the DXF file viewer program is automatically detected but if the wrong file viewer is automatically detected or no file viewer is detected this button can be used to select the viewer program Fo
208. is a text file containing the time varying simulation output The format of the file is similar to the ESO file Meters are a powerful reporting tool in EnergyPlus EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 183 Auxiliary Programs Values are grouped onto logical meters and can be viewed the same way that the ESO variables are used The contents of the file are controlled by Report Meter commands in the IDF file Although the MTR is a text file it is not easily interpretable by a human Usually postprocessing will be done on this file in order to put it in a format that can be read by a spreadsheet however a quick visual inspection of the file does show whether the expected variables are output at the desired time step eplusout eio The EnergyPlus Invariant Output EIO is a text file containing output that does not vary with time For instance location information latitude longitude time zone altitude appears on this file eplusout rdd The Report variable Data Dictionary RDD is a text file listing those variables available for reporting on the ESO or MTR for this particular simulation Which variables are available for output on the ESO or MTR depends on the actual simulation problem described in the IDF A simulation with no chiller would not permit the output of any chiller report variables The user may need to examine the RDD to find out which report variables are available in a particular simulation The RDD is written only if Report Vari
209. isted in the catalog data e RatedPower Rated power consumption W which corresponds to the highest heating capacity listed in the catalog data e Now click on Button 2 shown below to calculate the coefficients 2 Generate Coefficients i e The coefficients for the corresponding curves are listed at cell B12 C16 Error analysis of model are listed at cell B19 B27 e The errors for all the individual catalog data points are displayed in worksheet RESULT e The button shown below in worksheet CoeffCalculator is used for clearing the coefficients the error analysis and the outputs in worksheet RESULT Clear Result i End Curve Fit Model Procedure G Function Spreadsheet The spreadsheet g function_library xls has comparison plots for different configurations grouts for the Ground Heat Exchanger Vertical A user can see how the boreholes interact with each other in different configurations It has the actual screen shot GLHEPro showing the conditions inputs used to obtain the data GLHEPro is not included with EnergyPlus and it or something similar should be used to generate similar values Some of the values used in getting g functions are not used in the EnergyPlus Ground loop model but the spreadsheet screen shot gives an idea of what the inputs were in obtaining the g functions The reference data set GLHERefData idf contains sets of parameters for the Ground Heat Exchangers This file contains sample
210. itial missing conditions When a valid value is encountered from weather data however it will become the new missing replacement value Table 17 Missing weather replacement values Data item Supplied Value Units Dry Bulb Temperature 6 C Dew Point Temperature 3 C Relative Humidity 50 Atmospheric Pressure Standard Barometric Pressure altitude based Pa Wind Speed 2 5 m s Wind Direction 180 Deg Total Sky Cover 5 tenths Opaque Sky Cover 5 tenths Visibility 777 7 Km Ceiling Height T7777 m Precipitable Water 0 Mm Aerosol Optical Depth 0 Broadband turbidity Snow Depth 0 Cm Days Since Last Snow 88 Days EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 56 Auxiliary Programs Data item Supplied Value Units Radiation Values Direct Diffuse 0 0 Wh m2 Illuminance Values 0 0 lux or CD m2 Standard Barometric pressure based on location elevation is taken from ASHRAE 2001 Handbook of Fundamentals pages 6 1 amp 6 2 Source Weather Data Formats Source weather data for building energy simulation programs can be broken into two major classes historical data and typical weather years Historical data is just real data usually measured but sometimes modeled data from a particular location for a given period of record Typical years are ersatz years assembled to match the long term data from a particular location using a particular statistical measure Typical data may also be real data but may not be a contiguous year the data
211. itor 1 12 NOTE All comments with are ignored by the IDFEditor and are generated automatically b Use comments if they need to be retained when using the IDFEditor Is ALL OBJECTS IN CLASS MATERIALS Materials 2 NMAT Number of materials 0 158 ALBEDO Surface Albedo No Snow 0 379 ALBEDO Surface Albedo Snow ORF EPSLW Surface Emissivity No Snow 0 85 EPSLW Surface Emissivity Snow 0 75 ZO Surface Roughness No Snow 0 03 Z0 Surface Roughness Snow 6 13 HIN Indoor HConv Downward Flow W m2 K 9 26 HIN Indoor HConv Upward W m2 K ALL OBJECTS IN CLASS MATLPROPS MatlProps 2300 RHO Slab Material density kg m3 1200 RHO Soil Density kg m3 653 CP Slab CP J kg K 1200 CP Boll GP J kg K 0 93 TCON Slab k W m K 1 TCON Soil k W m K s ALL OBJECTS IN CLASS BOUNDCONDS BoundConds TRUE EVTR Is surface evapotranspiration modeled TRUE FIXBC is the lower boundary at a fixed temperature FALSE OLDTG is there an old ground temperature file ALL OBJECTS IN CLASS BLDGPROPS EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 89 Auxiliary Programs BldgProps 10 IYRS Number of years to iterate 0 Shape Slab shape 4 HBLDG Building height m 18 TIN1 January Indoor Average temperature set point C 18 TIN2 February Indoor Avera
212. ity precipitation Relative Humidity both monthly and average hourly by month Monthly Statistics for Relative Humidity JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 31 Auxiliary Programs Maximum Day Hour Minimum 100 96 96 100 100 9 6 93 96 1 00 96 96 100 7 05 6 0420 22 9 0325 02 5 0118 04 7 02 4 07 7 0711 07 7 05 23 30 22 24 25 3 0 25 36 19 20 32 25 Day Hour 17 1514 13 4 16 5 10 9 1217 10 2 1314 1328 1530 1320 1524 15 Daily Avg TET 75 70 72 73 Average Hourly Relative Humidity JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec HOT eo SOT HOT gis Ot NOM aA 0 0 01 8 00 01 9 00 01 10 00 10 01 11 00 11 01 12 00 12 01 13 00 13 01 14 00 14 01 15 00 15 01 16 00 16 01 17 00 17 01 18 00 18 01 19 00 19 01 20 00 20 01 21 00 21 01 22 00 22 01 23 00 23 01 24 00 Max Hour Min Hour 00 00 00 00 00 00 ONADORWNRrRO OAONADORWNR e 83 84 86 87 88 89 89 88 83 TT 74 69 65 62 61 61 66 71 74 TT 78 TO J9 82 T 15 1 81 82 83 84 84 84 84 82 81 79 74 69 63 63 63 62 65 68 FA 73 74 76 78 79 7 6 al 77 75 76 78 T9 80 80 75 70 68 65 59 58 58 58 59 62 67 71 Ra 74 76 76 76 7 5 1 81 80 83 82 83 83 GS 73 70 65 62 60 59 60 60 62 63 66 69 73 75 76 78 79 5 3 1 7 85 87 88 87 88 88 81 74 68 64 59
213. km Horizontal visibility at the time indicated It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations Missing value is 9999 Field Ceiling Height This is the value for ceiling height in m 77777 is unlimited ceiling height 88888 is cirroform ceiling It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations Missing value is 99999 Field Present Weather Observation If the value of the field is 0 then the observed weather codes are taken from the following field If the value of the field is 9 then missing weather is assumed Since the primary use of these fields Present Weather Observation and Present Weather Codes is for rain wet surfaces a missing observation field or a missing weather code implies no rain Table 15 Present Weather Observation Values Element Values Definition Observation Indicator 0 or 9 0 Weather observation made 9 Weather observation not made or missing Field Present Weather Codes The present weather codes field is assumed to follow the TMY2 con ventions for this field Note that though this field may be represented as numeric e g in the CSV format it is really a text field of 9 single digits This convention along with values for each column left to right is presented in Table 16 Note that some formats e g TMY does not follow this convention as much as possible the present weather codes are converted to this convention during WeatherConverter processing Also note that the most
214. l Figure 34 EP Launch Options Screen Minimize Single Simulation Command Window For a single input file minimizes the Command Window that EP Launch uses to run EnergyPlus The command window will appear only in the Windows taskbar and the command window will not be visible You can restore the command window be clicking on the taskbar item labeled EnergyPlus Process This option should be used with caution since you will not see any indication of the simulation being complete other than the EnergyPlus Process taskbar item will disappear Minimum Group Simulation Command Window For a group of input files minimizes the Command Window that EP Launch uses to run EnergyPlus This is a good option when working on something else on your computer at the same time as the group of simulations is running since the command window normally becomes the front window each time a new simulation starts This option prevents the command window coming to the front for each simulation The command window will appear only in the Windows taskbar and the command window will not be visible You can restore the command window be clicking on the taskbar item labeled EnergyPlus Process This option should be used with caution since you will not see any indication of the simulation being complete other than the EnergyPlus Process taskbar item will not be present Number of Simultaneous Processes Select the maximum number of simulations that s
215. lculate appropriate values for dew point temperature if it is missing and or relative humidity Again limited calculations derivations are done should one input wet bulb temperature along with dew point temperature and relative humidity Likewise if only values for global horizontal radiation and diffuse horizontal radiation are given the program will calculate a value for direct normal radiation using commonly recognized relationships between these values Custom File Processing Solar Radiation Value Calculation EnergyPlus only uses the solar radiation data for Direct Normal and Diffuse Horizontal radation in its calculations But many data sources have only Global Horizontal sometimes called Total or none of the solar radiation elements With any two of the solar components it is reasonable to use the simple relationship of Global Diffuse and Direct such as Globalhorizontal radiation Directhorizontal radiation Diffuseporizontal radiation Using known solar position calculated internally by the Weather converter from latitude longitude date and hour one has S Directhorizontal radiation sin Solarheight Directnormal radiation Thus having two of the solar radiation components makes it relatively simple to derive the third However many data sources may not have any solar radiation components A study was undertaken to find an appropriate solar model to fill in missing solar data for weather files The goal
216. ld be examined after a simulation Error messages may be issued by EnergyPlus during its input phase or during the simulation There are three levels of error severity fatal severe and warning as well as simple message lines A fatal error causes the program to terminate immediately The following table illustrates the necessary actions Table 41 Error Message Levels Required Actions Error Level Action Information Informative usually a follow on to one of the others No action required Warning Take note Fix as applicable Severe Should Fix Fatal Program will abort An example of an error message due to an input syntax error is Severe Did not find DessignDay in list of Objects Fatal Errors occurred on processing IDF file probable incorrect IDD file View audit out for details x xkkkkkkkkkkk EnergyPlus Terminated Error s Detected audit This is an text file which echoes the IDD and IDF files flagging syntax errors in either file Note that both err and audit will show most of the error messages caused by input syntax errors however only err will show errors issued during the actual simulation The audit can be used when you need to see the context of the error message to fully ascertain the cause The audit file also contains potentially extra information that may be useful from the input scan eso The EnergyPlus Standard Output ESO is a text file containing the time varying simulation output Th
217. ld be used to extend the catalog data range in order to have a good set of parameters coefficients Using the heat pump performance data enter the values to Table 1 in worksheet CATALOG DATA The values can be in SI or IP units e Click on Button 1 based on the units used For IP units 1 Generate Input from catalog data IP EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 144 Auxiliary Programs For SI units 1 Generate Input from catalog data S1 e The program will convert the values to the desired units and display them on Table 2 in worksheet INPUT e The button shown below is used clearing Table 1 worksheet CATALOG DATA and Table 2 work sheet INPUT It is advisable to clear the tables before generating parameters coefficients for a new heat pump model Clear Previous Catalog Data After Table 2 is created the parameters coefficients are then calculated as follows e Worksheet ParamEstimator is used for generating the parameters for the parameter estimation based model using Nelder Mead Simplex Refer to the steps in the Parameter Estimation Procedure e Worksheet CoeffCalculator is used for calculate the coefficients for the curve fit model using the generalized least square method Refer to the steps in the Curve Fit Model procedure Parameter Estimation Procedure Step 2a Generating First Set of Parameters PE Based Model e Using Table 2 the program can generate paramet
218. le the U S states located along the Gulf of Mexico are designated as Cfa The C represents the mild mid latitude category the second letter f stands for the German word feucht or moist and the third letter a indicates that the average temperature of the warmest month is above 22 C Thus Cfa gives us a good indication of the climate of this region a mild mid latitude climate with no dry season and a hot summer The K ppen classification code and some statistics was adapted with permission of Peter Schild from the COMIS weather program code Table 13 K ppen Climate Classification Major Groups K ppen Climate Type Description A Iropical Moist Climates all months have average temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius Dry Climates with deficient precipitation during most of the year Moist Mid latitude Climates with Mild Winters Moist Mid Latitude Climates with Cold Winters Polar Climates with extremely cold winters and summers Highland areas Due to mountainous areas this classification can encompass any of the previous five mEUO Y More details on each of the major categories and sub categories follow EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 39 Auxiliary Programs Tropical Moist Climates A Tropical moist climates extend northward and southward from the equator to about 15 to 25 degrees of latitude In these climates all months have average temperatures greater than 18 degrees Celsius An
219. ll fledged objects for EnergyPlus Read more details of the systems and the individual fields in the HVACTemplate objects in the Input Output Reference document ExpandObjects also processes GroundHeatTransfer objects sends an input file to the Slab and Basement preprocessors and replaces ground heat transfer boundary condition fields in building surface objects Read more details of the ground heat transfer processing in the Input Output Reference Technically speaking the ExpandObjects program is a preprocessor that is currently used with the HVACTemplate objects The preprocessor reads an idf file and generates an expanded idf file usually with the extension expidf The original idf file contains objects that will be read by the preprocessor and those that are ignored by the preprocessor The objects read can be either commented out or left as is The objects created by the preprocessor in the expanded idf file should require no further preprocessing The preprocessor does not read the EnergyPlus Data Dictionary file Energy IDD and does limited validation Most of the object values that are created are passed through from input objects This allows EnergyPlus to provide most of the validation If errors are found error messages are passed to the EnergyPlus program using the Output Preprocessor object These errors will be shown in the usual EnergyPlus error file When used with EP Launch the expanded idf file is renamed to the original
220. losses is that these values are too extreme for the soil under a conditioned building For best results use the Slab or Basement program described in this document to calculate custom monthly average ground temperatures see the Ground Heat Transfer section This is especially important for residential applications and very small buildings If one of these ground tempera ture preprocessors is not used for typical commercial buildings in the USA a reasonable default value is 2C less than the average indoor space temperature HOLIDAYS DAYLIGHT SAVING A1 field LeapYear Observed type choice key Yes key No note Yes if Leap Year will be observed for this file note No if Leap Year days 29 Feb should be ignored in this file A2 field Daylight Saving Start Day A3 field Daylight Saving End Day Ni field Number of Holidays essentially unlimited A4 field Holiday 1 Name A5 field Holiday 1 Day note repeat above two fields until Number of Holidays is reached etc to of Holidays entered The Holidays Daylight Saving header record details the start and end dates of Daylight Saving Time and other special days such as might be recorded for the weather file These can be used by keying Yes for appropriate fields in the Run Period Object Note EnergyPlus processed weather files available on the EnergyPlus web site http www eere energy gov buildings energyplus cfm weather data cfm have neither special days specified nor
221. lt type for the SAMSON data You must select the proper data type for your data or the processor probably won t work anywhere near what you expect Select Output Format You may select from four options of output format e EPW Format both an epw file and a statistical report file are produced e CSV Format both a csv file and a statistical report file are produced e Both EPW and CSV epw csv and statistical report files are produced e Rpt only only a statistical report file is produced output extension is stat Note that the CSV file is very similar to the EPW format file but is ready to be imported into a spreadsheet program such as Excel and has some additional header records in front of each EPW style header record EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 12 Auxiliary Programs GaData Utility to assist in creating EnergyPlus Weather Fo File Convert Data Help convert Da o xj Input D T esting WeatherStuff 448903 1WC Weather Select File to Convert Data File Data ASHRAE IWEC format Type Override Default Type Select Dutput Format rid EnergyPlus weather format EPW y D T esting WeatherStuff 448903IWEC epw Figure 3 Convert Data Screen selections EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 13 Auxiliary Programs Save File As This button allows you to select the location to save your file set from the output format selection The utility automatically places a data type extension on the file
222. ly FALSE Only advanced special simulations should use FALSE EquivAutoGrid NOTE EquivAutoGrid necessary when EquivSizing TRUE f This is the normal case If the modelled building is not a rectangle or square Equivalent sizing MUST be used to get accurate results 15 CLEARANCE Distance from outside of wall to edge 15m 1 SlabDepth Thickness of the floor slab m 0 1 2 4 BaseDepth Depth of the basement wall below grade m ComBldg Commercial building 20 Jan Ave basement temp 20 Feb Ave basement temp 20 Mar Ave basement temp 20 Apr Ave basement temp 20 May Ave basement temp 20 Jun Ave basement temp 20 Jul Ave basement temp 20 Aug Ave basement temp 20 Sep Ave basement temp 20 Oct Ave basement temp 20 Nov Ave basement temp 20 Dec Ave basement temp 0 0 Daily variation Sine Wave amplitude Additional Objects There are five additional objects in the IDD that can be used under very special situations by researchers who want to generate special calculation grids They are normally not useful to EnergyPlus users They will be shown as IDD sections only They do not need to be in the IDF AutoGrid memo AutoGrid only necessary when EquivSizing is false memo If the modelled building is not a rectangle or square Equivalent memo sizing MUST be used to get accurate results N1 field CLEARANCE Distance from outside of wall to edge
223. may be comprised of months from multiple years The primary source for historical weather data is the U S National Climatic Data Center NCDC in Asheville NC http www ncdc noaa gov NCDC can provide hourly historical data for thousands of locations around the world This data may not always be complete data items or periods of record may be missing Data Set vs Data Format In this document as well in many others you will read about a certain data set and you will also read about data in a certain format e g the TMY2 data set and the TMY2 data format Simply stated a data set refers to a set of data files developed around a set of procedures for selection and usually with a specific purpose for use A data format is merely the identification of data elements in a data file In the TMY2 example the TMY2 data set was developed as described below and the format of the data is usually called a TMY2 format Any data could be put into a TMY2 format but it wouldn t necessarily be selected using the same procedures as the TMY2 data set SAMSON Data Set Format A highly reliable source of historical data for U S locations is the Solar and Meteorological Surface Obser vational Network SAMSON data set assembled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL in Golden CO http www nrel gov The SAMSON data set contains a 30 year 1961 to 1990 period of record for 239 locations and are available from the NCDC SAMSON
224. mid ignore Pressure ignore WindDir ignore WindSpd ignore Visibility ignore CeilHgt ignore ObsIndicator WeatherCodes PrecWtr ignore AerOptDepth ignore SnowDepth ignore DaysSnow ignore DataUnds yet Use OS USE Use mo Y YA YAA eet Ut Ane 4 Ose ETE zc Ose Dil 153000 Mia AS SOS O UU E US Vr au Cllr Mc anat NEU XU egimus Meg SMALE CSx x x x x x x x x x DataConversionbactors io 151 5115 d EE o1 S1 L1 Ii TET soe ORT CIS Toe TOO toes ihe OR a y a E O Ol abe cheeky eod E Rr bye sal amp miscdata Commentsi Custom DEF format for TMY2 formatted files SourceData TMY2 amp datacontrol NumRecordsToSkip 1 MaxNumRecordsToRead 8784 MissingWindDirAction RANDOM MissingDataAction DEFAULT MissingOpaqueSkyCoverAction RANDOM Listing 5 DEF File for almost TMY2 files Finally an example of using an EPW file as a custom file with a DEF format Note that the specially formatted CSV files from EnergyPlus can be automatically read in and this format is provided as an extra bonus amp location City lt cityname gt StateProv lt state province gt Country lt country gt InWMO lt wmo gt InLat lt latitude gt InLong lt longitude gt InElev lt elevation gt InTime lt timezone gt amp wthdata NumInHour 1 InputFileType CUSTOM InFormat DELIMITED DataElements year month day hour minute datasource Dry Bulb Temperature Dew Point Temperature Relative Humidity Atmospheric Pressure Ex
225. mperatures of soil that have not been disturbed by construction They are not considered appropriate for calculations of building losses The program uses a heuristic time lagged calculation based on dry bulb temperature and location References on the topic are found in Kusuda see references Number of Ground Temperature Depths Ground Temperature Depth m Soil Conductivity W m K Soil Density kg m3 Soil Specific Heat J kg K Jan C Feb C Mar C Apr C May C Jun C Jul C Aug C Sep C 0ct C Nov C Dec C lt repeat to Number of temperature depths Sn 20 709i 22 3022 sO 22 AS MN dl 7 43505 095131 43712 995 13 965 15 384518 29 72 7159 191 18 720 017 PRN GZ SPRL ZNO SAO US Ss e 15 03 TA 25 TA 4p 1569 AA ph Se alts 19 38 20 10 20 30 19 82 18 80 17 56 16 35 15 56 15 39 15 89 16 89 Holiday Daylight Saving Header Data CSV If these data are entered the weather converter will process them Default weather processing contains no holidays or daylight saving period Of course these can also be specified in your input data file for EnergyPlus and do not need to be embedded in the weather file Leap Year Observed Daylight Saving Start Date Daylight Saving End Date Number of Holidays Holiday Name Holiday Date lt repeat for Holidays No 0 0 0 Comment 1 Header Data CSV Some original data files fill the comment 1 header and some do not Typically it will display at least a station number and potentially m
226. ms Under program dir should indicate the folder where EnergyPlus is installed e g C Program Files EnergyPlusV2 0 0 or C EnergyPlusV2 0 0 This is automatically generated during the install and may be the shortened form of these folder names The weather portion of the initialization file is unused for normal EnergyPlus BasementGHT and SlabGHT are used by the EP Launch program when the Utilities tab is used to execute the Basement and Slab programs respectively in epw The EnergyPlus weather file is an ascii file containing the hourly or sub hourly weather data needed by the simulation program The data format is described in this document in the section EnergyPlus Weather File EPW Data Dictionary Output Files More information and more up to date about output files is shown in the Output Details and Examples Document eplusout err A text file containing the error messages issued by EnergyPlus This is the first output that should be examined after a simulation Error messages are issued by EnergyPlus during its input phase or during the simulation There are three levels of error severity fatal severe and warning as well as simple message lines A fatal error causes the program to terminate immediately The following table illustrates the necessary actions Table 42 Error Message Levels Required Actions Error Level Action Information Informative usually a follow on to one of the others
227. mum recursions used in computing the obstructed view factors Limiting the maximum number of recursions limits the total execution time of the program but may prevent reaching the specified convergence minO 0 minimum recursions used in computing the obstructed view factors This can help in cases where an obstruction occurs very near the view between the edges of two surfaces The normal adaptive integration may miss the obstruction Increasing this value from its normal value of 0 to 1 or 2 may catch the obstruction This is probably not necessary except when very accurate view factors are desired It can add considerably to execution time row 0 selected row for computing view factors 0 all rows col 0 selected column for computing view factors 0 all columns encl 0 1 indicates that the surfaces form an enclosure 0 indicates that they do not This data is used to adjust the view factors of an enclosure to guarantee conservation of energy emit 0 1 indicates that diffuse reflectance effects will be included in the computed view factors 0 indicates they will not i e surfaces will be considered black out 0 view factor output file format 1 gence criterion for the numerical integration used to compute view factors between surfaces that have view obstructing surfaces between them list 0 computational summary written to the VIEW3D LOG file 0 gives minimal information 1 gives slightly more 2 prints all the vi
228. must be deducted from the former If the capacity and power data are normalized values then enter 1 0 for rated gross capacity and power in the Rated Data input Cells range B11 E11 in the INPUT tab Two samples of performance and rated data set are included in the INSTRUCTION tab Outputs The generated curves are post processed to make sure that the curve value is 1 0 at the rated condition The post processing is applied only if the curve value at the rated condition deviates by a value less than or equal to 0 025 and the performance data set contains the rated data set as one the data points The coefficients of these curves are displayed on the OUTPUT tab as shown in Figure 2 Besides the curve coefficients the goodness of curve fit indicator statistical parameters R is also reported The R is the ratio of the sum of the squared deviations of the curve fit values from the mean to the sum of the squared deviations of the original data from the mean R squared values closer to 1 0 are good The tool has an option to save the curve objects to an output file by running another macro SaveCurveObjTo TextFile The option output files and the directory path are specified in the OUPUT tab in cells C2 and C3 respectively as shown in Figure 34 If the output file name and path are left blank then default names EplusCurveObjects IDF and the local directory where the tool is located are used The local directory where the tool is loc
229. n the Utilities tab in EP Launch See the EP Launch section in this document for more information on how to use EP Launch with the CalcSoilSurfTemp program You can also run the CalcSoilSurfTemp program as a console application with a batch file RunCalcSoil SurfTemp The argument to the batch file is the name of the weather file to be used Steps to running this program follow EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 135 Auxiliary Programs 1 Open a DOS command prompt window Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt 2 Change to the directory where EnergyPlus is installed modify the commands below if you did not install EnergyPlus in the default install path C CD lt root folder gt 1 Change to the calculate surface soil temperature folder CD PreProcess CalcSoilSurfTemp 1 Run the program runcalcsoilsurftemp USA_IL_Chicago OHare_TMY2 When installed the batch file automatically points the path for weather data to the installed weather data path If you save your weather files in a different location you will need to modify the batch file or create your own with your own folder paths Note that the program is interactive expects user responses from the command line These inputs are described in the following section Program Inputs In order to use the CalcSoilSurfTemp program a weather data file is used The entire year of weather data is used to calculate parameters of the soil surface temperature The CalcSoilSurfTem
230. n has the capability of including a gravel fill around the basement Thus several dimensions must be specified All units are in meters Field DWALL Wall thickness This field specifies the basement wall thickness m Typical value is 0 2 Field DSLAB Floor Slab thickness This field specifies the thickness of the floor slab m Typical value is 0 25 Field DGRAVXY Width of gravel pit beside basement wall This field specifies the width of the gravel fill bed beside the basement wall m Field DGRAVZN Gravel depth extending above the floor slab This field specifies the depth of the gravel fill above the floor slab m Field DGRAVZP Gravel depth below the floor slab This field specifies the depth of the gravel fill below the floor slab m EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 98 Auxiliary Programs Interior or GroundHeat Transfer Basement Interior Object This object provides the information needed to simulate the boundary conditions inside the basement Field COND Flag Is the basement conditioned This flag indicates that the basement tempera ture is controlled For EnergyPlus runs this should be TRUE Field HIN Downward convection only heat transfer coefficient This field specifies the convection only heat transfer coefficient for floors downward heat flux W m2 K Field HIN Upward convection only heat transfer coefficient This field specifies the convection only heat transfer coefficient for floors u
231. n of 26 Typical Meteorological Year TMY hourly weather files to the original WYEC data set and a number of improvements The work of revising and improving the WYEC data base was performed by at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL as part of the Solar Radiation Resource Assessment Program SRRAP during the period 1989 through 1993 Richard Perez at the State University of New York at Albany Atmospheric Sciences Research Center provided a substantial contribution to this work The resulting set of 77 revised and corrected hourly weather files are referred to as WYEC Version 2 or WYEC2 data set The WYEC2 format is used as the format for several other data sets The WYEC2 data set however was not made available for download though of course those files can be read if desired with the EnergyPlus Weather Converter utility Canadian Weather for Energy Calculations CWEC Produced by Numerical Logics in collaboration with Environment Canada and the National Research Council of Canada the CWEC were derived using a methodology similar to the TMY2 and TMY CWEC hourly files represent weather conditions that result in approximately average heating and cooling loads in buildings The National Energy Code of Canada requires the use of a CWEC file representative of a location when the performance path and customized design calculations are chosen as the means of building energy consumption compliance The CWEC follow the ASHRAE WYEC2
232. n this document for more information on how to use EP Launch with the CoeffConv program When using EP Launch to run CoeffConv the input file must have the file extension coi and will create an output file with the file extension coo You can also run the CoeffConv program as a console application The input file then must be from file CoeffConvInput txt status OLD There are 6 lines of ascii input For example VarSpeedCoolCapFt 0 29382 0 0222213 0 00006988 0 0040928 0 00000226 0 00013774 55 75 By LU 67 0 95 0 5 0 The 1st line is the user selected name of the curve The 2nd line contains the 6 biquadratic curve coefficients comma separated These are the Doe 2 coefficients The 3rd line contains the min and max values of the 1st independent variable comma separated deg F The 4th line contains the min and max values of the 2nd independent variable comma separated deg F The 5th line contains the rated values of the 1st amp 2nd independent variables comma separated deg F The 6th line contains the delta T for the output performance maps All the input lines should start in column 1 The above sequence can be repeated up to 100 times The output file is CoeffConvOutput txt status NEW that means you need to delete any existing Coeff ConvOutput txt The output file will contain the EnergyPlus idf input for the curve as well as any error messages Also the DOE 2 and EnergyPlus curve values at the rating po
233. nction of flow fraction allows either Cubic or Quadratic curve type The curve types allowed are Biquadratic CurveValue ag a1 X a2X a3Y a4Y a5 XY Cubic CurveValue ao a1 X a3 X a3 X Quadratic CurveValue ao a4 X a3 X These performance curves as a function of temperatures are generated for a given set of input data at a given speed The curves as a function of flow fraction are generated at the rated temperature conditions The rated test condition is the AHRI standard test condition AHRI 2003 2007 2008 The AHRI standard test condition may vary by the equipment type For multiple speeds or multiple stage DX Coils different curve sets can be generated by entering a different set of data for each speed or stage at a time The tool automatically populates the labels for each data inputs variable when users select the Coil Type Independent Variables Curve Type and Units The curve fit tool interface in Figure 1 shows labels selected to generate capacity and EIR biquadratic curves as function of temperatures for DX cooling coil The tool can be used for Coil Cooing DX SingleSpeed Coil Heating DX SingleSpeed Coil Cooing DX TwoSpeed high and low speed CoilPerformance DX Cooling each stage and any HVAC equipment that use Bi quadratic Cubic or Quadratic curves To add this flexibility generic input data labels can be populated by selecting Other for DX Coil Type input field located in Cell B3 in Figure
234. nd Paste Obj buttons These allow objects to be copied between files are also good for copying from files in the DataSets subdirectory Also see the Edit menu to perform these functions File Menu The File menu can be used for creating or selecting input files just like the buttons on the IDF Editor screen see the Creating or Selecting an Input File section above In addition the File menu is used to save a file or exit the IDF Editor More than one file can be opened at a time The File Save Options screen is shown below save Options Saved Order of Objects Original with New at Bottom Special Format for Some Objects Tes Set as Default men Figure 45 IDF Editor Save Options Screen The save options allow the order of the objects in the file to be sorted by type of object or to keep the original order of the objects for an existing file The placement of new objects when the original order is specified can be either at the top or bottom of the file In addition the Save Options also allow certain objects to be written to the file using a specific format that some users prefer The settings for the save options are kept for each file saved from the IDF Editor The Set as Default option allows you to keep the save options intact for files that have not been saved yet with a version of IDF Editor that has this capability The Help that is available from the Save Options screen i
235. nd temperatures see the Ground Heat Transfer section This is especially important for residential applications and very small buildings If one of these ground temperature preprocessors is not used for typical commercial buildings in the USA a reasonable default value is 2C less than the average indoor space temperature Heating cooling degree days from the weather file are shown Long term heating cooling degree days are shown earlier if available from ASHRAE HOF for the location WMO Monthly Heating Cooling Degree Days Hours JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec HDD 10C 52 3 T 1 0 0 o 0 o 0 1 36 HDD 18C 290 188 223 173 130 100 73 59 54 92201690273 CDD 10C 10 39 32 68 118 142 188 189 200 157 12 10 CDD 18C 0 0 0 0 0 3 14 0 14 1 0 0 CDH 20C 0 9 0 45 93 136 330 223 410 129 0 0 CDH 23C 0 0 0 5 13 41 167 50 169 13 0 0 CDH 27C 0 0 0 0 0 0 61 5 59 0 0 0 1227 annual cooling degree days 10 C baseline 100 annual heating degree days 10 C baseline 32 annual cooling degree days 18 C baseline 1825 annual heating degree days 18 C baseline In the preceding display for degree days users more familiar with degree days to a Fahrenheit temperature base may wish to multiply the degree day or degree hour values by 9 5 And then the K ppen ASHRAE and typical extreme period calculations Climate type Cfb K ppen classification Marine west coastal warm summer mild winter rain all year lat 35 60 N Note that
236. needs to understand a field value and a macro is present instead will use a default value for the field instead Most fields do not need to be understood by the translator and are directly passed through to the IMF file unchanged Files that are included with the include are not translated automatically and would each need to be run through the DOE2Translator If the included file does not have the INP extension it would need to be changed prior to the translation In addition the user would need to edit the include commands to use the IMF extension instead of the INP extension In this version of the DOE2Translator program translation is limited to the following DOE 2 commands which represent the majority of the building envelope and internal gains SPACE except SHAPE BOX SPACE CONDITIONS DAY SCHEDULE except use of HOURS and VALUES keywords WEEK SCHEDULE except use of DAYS and DAY SCHEDULE keywords SCHEDULE except use of WEEK SCHEDULE keyword EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 157 MATERIAL LAYERS CONSTRUCTION Auxiliary Programs EXTERIOR WALL ROOF except polygon INTERIOR WALL FIXED SHADE WINDOW DOOR RUN PERIOD DESIGN DAY LIKE SET DEFAULT Running Console Applications Generally the steps for executing a console application is 1 Open a DOS command prompt window Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt 2 Change to the directory where EnergyPlus is installed modify the commands below if you did not
237. nergyPlusw eatherDataXLISA CO Boulder TMY2 epw 3 C EnergyPlus E xampleFiles 1ZoneUncontrolled idf C NEnergyPlusw eatherDataXLISA FL Tampa TMY2 epw 4 C EnergyPlus E xampleFilesN3zvent idf C EnergpPlus WeatherD ata USA_CA_San Francisco_TMY2 epw 5 C EnergyPlus E xampleFilesN3zvent idf C NEnergyPlusw eatherDataXLISA CO Boulder TMY2 epw B C EnergyPlus ExampleFiles 3zvent idf C SEnergyPlusw eatherDataXL SA FL Tampa TMY2 epw 7 C EnergyPlus ExampleFiles 3zvent4utoCalcOhwindPressureCoetfs idf C EnergyPlus WeatherD ata USA _ C San Francisco TMY2 epw 8 CXEnergyPlussE xampleFilesN3zvent amp utoCalcOfwindPressureCoeffs idf C SEnergyPlussw eatherDataXLISA CO Boulder TMY2 epw 3 C EnergyPlus E xampleFilesN3zvent amp utoCalcOfwindPressureCoeffs idf C SEnergyPlusw eatherDataXLISA FL Tampa TMY2 epw Add More Simulations Delete Simulation Next gt gt Figure 38 EP Launch Step 3 of New Group Wizard im New Group of Simulations x r Step 4 of 5 Output File Locations The output files will be in the same directory and use the same file name as each original file With this option either the Single Simulation tab or the History tab may be used to open files This option does not work when multiple weather files are selected C User Defined Location Place the output files in a custom user defined location Select this option if multiple weather files are chosen or if IMF files need to be simulated multiple times The Sin
238. nes 2 CTZ2 Updated weather data for 16 California climate zones for use to demonstrate compliance with Title 24 with approved building energy simulation programs All 16 CTZ2 weather files are available for download in EnergyPlus weather format The original source data is available from the California Energy Commission These source data files are described using the WYEC2 format Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment SWERA The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment SWERA project funded by the United Nations Environ ment Program is developing high quality information on solar and wind energy resources in 13 developing countries Currently typical year hourly data are available for 48 locations in Belize Cuba El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Maldives Nicaragua and Sri Lanka The data are available from the SWERA project web site SWERA plans to release new data for Brazil Ethiopia Ghana Kenya and Nepal over the coming few months These source data files are described using the SWERA format Spanish Weather for Energy Calculations SWEC Originally developed for use with Calener a new program for building energy labelling in Spain these weather files cover all 52 Spanish provincial capitals Calener was developed by the Grupo de Termotecnia of the Escuela Superior de Ingeneiros in Seville for the Spanish Government The weather files were synthetically EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 61 Auxiliary Programs generated us
239. ngle character can be used to specify the decimal point character Default is the US Standard With use of DelimiterChar and this field one can essentially use the fields to specify European Standard Excel export formats Field DateSeparator If you are entering the aforementiond date Data Element and your date sep arator is a character other than slash then you need to enter a single character so the program can interpret your date entries Table 12 Definitions file amp datacontrol description amp datacontrolField Description Field Name Type Records to Skip NumRecordsToSkip Integer Records to Read MaxNumRecordsToRead Integer EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 20 Auxiliary Programs amp datacontrolField Description Field Name Type Missing Data Action MissingDataAction m Missing Wind Direction Action MissingWindDirAction B Missing Wind Direction Value MissingWindDir Value Real Missing Opaque Sky Cover Action MissingOpaqueSkyCoverAction Missing Opaque Sky Cover Value MissingOpaqueSkyCoverValue Real Value 0 0 to 10 0 tenths of sky cover Maximum Wind Speed MaxWindSpeed Real Maximum Direct Solar MaxDirectSolar Real Maximum Diffuse Solar MaxDiffuseSolar Real Maximum Illuminance Value MaxllluminanceValue Real Generate Solar Radiation Warnings GenerateSolarRadiationWarnings Generate Illuminance Warnings GeneratellluminanceWarnings Expected Formats for amp datacont
240. nite difference cell in the vertical direction Thus if the slab thickness is set too large the accuracy of the calculation may be suspect The results with three different slab thicknesses are shown below All other inputs for the runs were the same It is clear that the slab thickness has a significant effect because of the horizontal component of conduction in both directions in the slab Field CLEARANCE Distance from edge of slab to domain edge This field specifies the distance from the slab to the edge of the area that will be modeled with the grid system It is the basic size dimension that is used to set the horizontal extent of the domain The units are meters and 15 meters is a reasonable value EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 86 Auxiliary Programs Field ZCLEARANCE Distance from bottom of slab to domain bottom This field specifies the vertical distance from the slab to the bottom edge of the area that will be modeled with the grid system It is the basic size dimension that is used to set vertical extent of the domain The units are meters and 15 meters is a reasonable value The object is shown below EquivalentSlab memo Using an equivalent slab allows non rectangular shapes to be modeled accurately Ni field APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab units m N2 field SLABDEPTH Thickness of slab on grade note typical value 0 1 units m N3 field CLEARANCE Distance from edge of slab to domain edge note t
241. nput directly FALSE note It is recommended that EnergyPlus users use TRUE EquivAutoGrid Object Obsolete This object provides the information needed by the program to automatically generate the calculation grid when the slab is described as an equivalent slab It is necessary for EnergyPlus users because equivalent slab is the appropriate option Field SLABDEPTH Thickness of slab on grade This field specifies the thickness of the slab in meters Note that the slab top surface is level with the ground surface so this is the depth into the ground The slab depth has a significant effect on the temperature calculation and it is also important for the auto grid process The finite difference grids are set in such a way that they use the slab thickness to determine the vertical grid spacing Because of this autogridding will fail if the slab thickness is specified larger than 0 25 meters The program also is set up so that the slab is a single finite difference cell in the vertical direction Thus if the slab thickness is set too large the accuracy of the calculation may be suspect The results with three different slab thicknesses are shown below All other inputs for the runs were the same It is clear that the slab thickness has a significant effect because of the horizontal component of conduction in both directions in the slab Field CLEARANCE Distance from edge of slab to domain edge This field specifies the distance from the slab to t
242. ns across the world is continuously collected and stored into a local database The data is available through this web interface Most stations have information for dry bulb temperature wet bulb temperature wind speed direction atmospheric pressure visibility cloud conditions and precipitation type Data may not be available for all stations and may not be contiguous for time period selected The data is available in two output formats CSV and IWEC Note that their CSV is not the same as EnergyPlus CSV format If you wish to get weather data from the real time sources it may be easier to use the IWEC format with the EnergyPlus WeatherConverter program HOWEVER they do not collect solar data and currently the WeatherConverter cannot generate solar data for these data files Meteonorm Data Meteonorm software can be used when there is no measured data near the location for the simulation Me teonorm extrapolates hourly data from statistical data for a location Where statistical data aren t available Meteonorm interpolates from other nearby sites Generally a statistical approach is a last resort weather files generated from statistics will not demonstrate the normal hour to hour and day to day variability seen in measured data Meteonorm version 6 will directly write EP W files Other Formats The data sets and formats described above are some of the newest formats available for use with building simulation programs Source data come
243. nt And only Custom format input type uses the Data Elements Format and Conversion factors from the amp wthdata element Note that strings in the def should be enclosed in single quotes if there is more than one word in the string if only one word quotes do not need to be used Table 4 Definitions File amp location description amp locationField Description Field Name Type Name of City City String State or Province StateProv String Country Code Country String 3 characters Latitude N S InLat Numeric Longitude W E4 InLong Numeric Time Zone GMT InTime Numeric Elevation meters InElev Numeric WMO InWMO Numeric or String 6 characters Expected Formats for amp location Fields City StateProv Country These fields are string variables If Country is not included an attempt to use the State Prov entry may be used to determine country Otherwise these fields are not validated and are used to create part of the location header record in the EPW file City can be up to 30 characters in length StateProv up to 15 characters Country up to 10 characters standard 3 character abbreviation preferred Fields InLat InLong These fields are decimal equivalent for Latitude and Longitude The convention is North Latitude is positive South is negative Likewise East Longitude is positive West Longitude is negative That is if your latitude is N 30 15 North 30 degrees 15 minutes then your input is 30
244. nual precipitation is greater than 1500 mm Three minor K ppen climate types exist in the A group and their designation is based on seasonal distribution of rainfall Af or tropical wet is a tropical the climate where precipitation occurs all year long Monthly temperature variations in this climate are less than 3 degrees Celsius Because of intense surface heating and high humidity cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds form early in the afternoons almost every day Daily highs are about 32 degrees Celsius while night time temperatures average 22 degrees Celsius Am is a tropical monsoon climate Annual rainfall is equal to or greater than Af but falls in the 7 to 9 hottest months During the dry season very little rainfall occurs The tropical wet and dry or savanna Aw has an extended dry season during winter Precipitation during the wet season is usually less than 1000 millimeters and only during the summer season Dry Climates B The most obvious climatic feature of these climates is potential evaporation and transpiration exceeds precip itation These climates extend from 20 35 degrees North and South of the equator and in large continental regions of the mid latitudes often surrounded by mountains Minor types of this climate include Bw dry arid desert is a true desert climate It covers 12 96 of the earth s land surface and is dominated by xerophytic vegetation Bs dry semiarid steppe is a grassland climate that covers 1496 of the earth
245. o use it Command mode or DOS mode one may modify several important lines Instructions Complete the following path and program names path names must have a following or errors will happen set program_path set program_name Slab exe set input_path set output_path set weather_path C EnergyPlus WeatherData and then in command mode issue the run command RunSlab myinput Chicago Where you would have myinput idf in input_ path and Chicago would be the name of the epw file in the weather path You should set up the command mode so that it does not automatically close the window at the end of program termination if you want to see the commands as they run and know for sure that no errors occurred Slab Program Output Files The following output files are created by the Slab program and saved in the output file path specified in the RunSlab bat file slab ger Error file Input errors are reported here slab out Summary of inputs location data and grid coordinates slab gtp Monthly ground temperatures and EnergyPlus idf objects EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 79 Auxiliary Programs EnergyPlus idf Objects from Slab Program If the objects are placed in the normal EnergyPlus input IDF file using the GroundHeatTransfer Slab prefix then the values resulting from the Slab preprocessor will be automatically included in the simulation at run time The surfaces can reference these values using Outside B
246. o users at no cost via this EnergyPlus web site All 227 locations in the IWEC data set are available for download in EnergyPlus weather format The IWEC source data is 2001 American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers ASHRAB Inc Atlanta GA USA http www ashrae org All rights reserved as noted in the License Agreement and Additional Conditions IWEC also describes a data format very similar to the TMY2 data format Typical Meteorological Year TMY Data for 230 locations in the USA plus four locations in Cuba Marshall Islands Palau and Puerto Rico derived from a 1948 1980 period of record Many of the locations in the TMY data set were subsequently updated by the TMY2 Similar to the TMY2 the TMY are data sets of hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological elements for a 1 year period Their intended use is for computer simulations of solar energy conversion systems and building systems to facilitate performance comparisons of different system types configurations and locations in the United States and its territories Because they represent typical rather than extreme conditions they are not suited for designing systems to meet the worst case conditions occurring at a location The data are available for purchase from the National Climatic Data Center All TMY locations are available for download in EnergyPlus weather format TMY also describes a data format California Climate Zo
247. ocal time usually with a calibration correction D Data derived from the other two elements of solar radiation using the relationship global diffuse direct cosine zenith E Modeled solar radiation data using inputs of observed sky cover cloud amount and aerosol optical depths derived from direct normal data collected at the same location F Modeled solar radiation data using interpolated sky cover and aerosol optical depths derived from direct normal data collected at the same location G Modeled solar radiation data using observed sky cover and aerosol optical depths estimated from geographical relationships H Modeled solar radiation data using interpolated sky cover and estimated aerosol optical depths I Modeled illuminance or luminance data derived from measured or modeled solar radiation data Source does not fit any of the above categories Used for nighttime values and missing data Table 21 Solar Radiation and Illuminance Data Uncertainty Flag Codes Flag Uncertainty Range 1 Not used 2 2 4 3 4 6 4 6 9 5 9 13 6 13 18 is 18 25 8 25 35 9 35 50 0 Not applicable Finally the Meteorological data source and uncertainty flag codes are shown in the following two tables EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 67 Auxiliary Programs Table 22 Meteorological Data Source Flag Codes Flag Definition Data as received from NCDC converted to SI units Linearly interpolated Non linearly interpolated
248. olored light blue in worksheet CoeffCalculator e RatedAirVolFlowRate Rated volumetric air flow rate m s which corresponds to the highest total cooling capacity listed in the catalog data e RatedWaterVolFlowRate Rated volumetric water flow rate m s which corresponds to the high est total cooling capacity listed in the catalog data e RatedTotalCap Rated total cooling capacity W which is the highest total cooling capacity listed in the catalog data e RatedSensCap Rated sensible cooling capacity W which corresponds to the highest total cooling capacity listed in the catalog data e RatedPower Rated power consumption W which corresponds to the highest total cooling capacity listed in the catalog data e Now click on Button 2 shown below to calculate the coefficients 2 Generate Coefficients i e The coefficients for the corresponding curves are listed at cell B12 D17 Error analysis of model are listed at cell B19 B30 e The errors for all the individual catalog data points are displayed in worksheet RESULT e The button shown below in worksheet CoeffCalculator is used for clearing the coefficients the error analysis and the outputs in worksheet RESULT Clear Result EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 150 Auxiliary Programs End Curve Fit Model Procedure Water to Air Heat Pump Parameter Coefficient Generator Heating Mode This document gives brief instructions on generating the parame
249. on of the screen A class is made up of a group of objects Select a class from the list by clicking on and highlighting the class The field to the left of the selected class in the Class List will either contain _ to indicate that this class has no objects in the IDF file or it will contain a number like 0003 to indicate the number of times the object currently appears in the IDF file For example for the BuildingSurface Detailed class selected in the screen above under the Thermal Zone Description Geometry group there are 40 objects in the IDF file The details for these 40 objects or any new object that is defined are displayed in columns within the grid Each object is made up of fields and can be used to further define the object Any units attached to each field are shown in the second column You may need to scroll down the field list or maximize the application to see all of the fields Likewise you may need to scroll to the right of the main grid to see other objects Options under the view menu can change how you use the Class List To display only classes that contain objects select the show classes with objects only option on the View menu You can also toggle this feature on and off with CTRL L If the file is empty and has no objects this toggle does not impact the display The Show Quick Select Dropdowns view menu option adds two new input fields to the main screen The input fields can be used to
250. on the outside of the surface specified as having the OtherSideCoeffcients named in Al SurfaceProperty OtherSideCoefficients A1 NI memo This object sets the other side conditions for a surface in a variety of ways min fields 8 field Name required field reference OSCNames reference DutFaceEnvNames field Combined Convective Radiative Film Coefficient required field type real note if gt 0 this field becomes the exterior convective radiative film coefficient note and the other fields are used to calculate the outdoor air temperature note then exterior surface temperature based on outdoor air and specified coefficient note if lt 0 then remaining fields calculate the outside surface temperature note following fields are used in the equation note SurfTemp N7 TempZone N4 QutdoorDry bulb N2 N3 GroundTemp N5 WindSpeed N6 QutdoorDry bulb N2 N3 N4 field Constant Temperature units C type real default 0 note This parameter will be overwritten by the values from the Constant Temperature Schedule Name below if one is present field Constant Temperature Coefficient note This coefficient is used even with a Schedule It should normally be 1 0 in that case default 1 field External Dry Bulb Temperature Coefficient type real default 0 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 103 Auxiliary Programs N5 N6 NT A2 field Ground Temperature Coefficient type real d
251. one Name FAREA OCCDENAVG Number of People OCCSCHED Number of People SCHEDULE Name real fraction 0 5000000 Fraction Radiant Activity Sch Activity level SCHEDULE Name units W person real endif EPDrawGUI The EPDrawGUI program is a simple utility that can be used to generate a dxf file from an input file without running EnergyPlus It is a simple cross platform application is stored in the Preprocess subfolder of the EnergyPlus folder upon installation A companion DLL EPlusDrw dll is also needed in the same folder And its library folders are required in a subfolder EPDrawGUI Libs Help is offered on the Main Tab and on the Options Tab when you place the mouse without clicking over the buttons check boxes and option boxes In addition the program copyright information is displayed when the mouse is over the Version number text in the lower left corner EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 113 Auxiliary Programs Es EPDrawGUI Create OXF From IDF Show OMF File After Created version 0 06 Figure 24 EPDrawGUI Main Screen EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 114 Auxiliary Programs Main Tab The Main Tab shown in Figure 30 contains the Create DXF from IDF button which is the button to use to create a DXF file from an IDF file the main function of the EPDrawGUI program This is the primary button that you will need to use When pressed you select an IDF file that you want to use as the bas
252. ong supported by a CERG grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China Solar radiation measured from observatory station at 22 32N 114 17 E 65m above mean sea level EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 62 Auxiliary Programs Chinese Standard Weather Data CSWD Developed for use in simulating building heating and air conditioning loads and energy use and for cal culating renewable energy utilization this set of 270 typical hourly data weather files These data were developed by Dr Jiang Yi Department of Building Science and Technology at Tsinghua University and China Meteorological Bureau The source data include annual design data typical year data and extreme years for maximum enthalpy and maximum and minimum temperature and solar radiation China Meteorological Bureau Climate Information Center Climate Data Office and Tsinghua University Department of Building Science and Technology 2005 China Standard Weather Data for Analyzing Building Thermal Conditions April 2005 Beijing China Building Industry Publishing House ISBN 7 112 07273 3 13228 http www china building com cn Kuwait Weather Data from Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research KISR Two weather files for Kuwait based on measured meteorological data for Kuwait International Airport and KISR s coastal weather station Provided by KISR in spreadsheet format Egyptian Weather for Energy Calculations EWEC Develo
253. ooooo o 14 ooooo o 168 297 372 428 426 360 414 314 229 0 9 00 00 11 3 6 1800 1800 1600 210 Global Horizontal Wh m 3314 6730 25 912 212 co 100 000 o 266 375 413 473 455 461 403 306 101 0100 0 12 Average Hourly Statistics for Diffuse Horizontal Solar Radiation Wh m JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec ONODAORWNRO SOT HOT Wis SO HOT SOT S07 SO guo e OM OE OAc tos OE eA SOT s 01 14 SOT ibis OMe ig a nO de S01 18 EON EOS onon pune 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0 No a QC o N 105 146 174 176 170 148 122 34 0 0 0 oOooooo 28 123 164 187 173 178 154 118 vat 24 0 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 70 124 169 203 227 224 221 194 159 100 49 2 0 oooo 1 45 107 155 225 268 267 281 258 226 216 162 126 9 0 0 0 0 0 26 81 135 190 215 255 260 249 244 211 188 149 93 39 2 050 c 0 e 118 155 208 226 225 191 184 144 9t 3 0 0 Oo0ooooooo ONON NAB 192 205 178 147 114 10 0 0 Page 33 Auxiliary Programs HIE 20 2 22 23 041 293 oil Eg 911 2 2 011 21819 01 24 00 00 00 00 00 Max Hour Min Hour oOooooo 13 1 OOoooo 12 1 ooooo 14 1 ooooo 13 T oo O O O 12 H oooonw 13 1 O O O O d 12 1 oooor
254. ore information Comment Line 1 IWEC WMO 947670 South west Pacific Original Source Data c 2001 American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers ASHRAE Inc Atlanta GA USA www ashrae org All rights reserved as noted in the License Agreement and Additional Conditions DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES The data is provided as is without warranty of any kind either expressed or implied The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the data is with you In no event will ASHRAE or its contractors be liable to you for any damages including without limitation any lost profits lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use this data Comment 2 Header Data CSV Comment Line 2 Ground temps produced with a standard soil diffusivity of 2 3225760E 03 m 2 day Data Period Header Data CSV Number of Data Periods DP Number of Intervals per Hour DP Name Description DP Start Day of Week DP Start Day DP End Day lt repeat to Data Periods 1 1 Data Sunday 1 1 12 31 Data Records CSV The field names for each item are shown First the short names Date HH MM Datasource DryBulb C DewPoint C RelHum Atmos Pressure Pa ExtHorzRad Wh m2 ExtDirRad Wh m2 HorzIRSky Wh m2 GloHorzRad Wh m2 DirNormRad Wh m2 DifHorzRad Wh m2 GloHorzIllum lux DirNormIllum lux DifHorzIllum lux ZenLum Cd m2 WindDir deg WindSpd m s
255. oundary Conditions of e GroundSlabPreprocessorAverage e GroundSlabPreprocessorCore e GroundSlabPreprocessorPerimeter The objects that support this include BuildingSurface Detailed Wall Detailed RoofCeiling Detailed Floor Detailed The slab program is capable of supplying the EnergyPlus idf objects needed to use the slab program outputs directly by copying the objects into the EnergyPlus idf file The file containing these objects has the extension gtp and an example is shown below It contains the output temperatures and heat fluxes and in addition it contains an OtherSideCoefficient object example as mentioned above and three compact schedule objects that can be used to describe the average core and perimeter temperatures directly in EnergyPlus The Name in the compact schedule corresponds to the Ground TemperatureScheduleName in the OtherSideCoefficient object Monthly Slab Outside Face Temperatures C and Heat Fluxes loss W m 2 Perimeter Area 304 00 Core Area 1296 00 Month TAverage TPerimeter TCore TInside AverageFlux PerimeterFlux CoreFlux 1 17 74 16 41 18 05 18 00 0 88 5 39 PO 2 17 49 16 15 17 81 18 00 1 73 6 29 0 66 3 17 45 16 23 17 74 18 00 1 86 6 02 0 88 4 18 96 17 86 19 22 20 00 3 51 7 24 2 64 5 19 22 18 22 19 45 20 00 2 66 6 04 1 86 6 19 28 18 38 19 49 20 00 2 44 5 48 1 73 ia 20 83 19 98 21 03 22 00 3 96 6 87 3 28 8 21 12 20 39 129 22 00 2 98 5 47 2 40 9 21 18 20 46 21 35 22 00 2 76 5 22 21 118 10 2l aT 20 23 21 3
256. ow Insulation N1 field RINS R value of under slab insulation note typical value 0 2 0 Nunits m2 K W N2 field DINS Width of strip of under slab insulation note typical value 0 2 0 Nunits m N3 field RVINS R value of vertical insulation note typical value 0 3 0 Nunits m2 K W N4 field ZVINS Depth of vertical insulation note only use values 2 4 6 8 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5 3 0 Nunits m N5 field IVINS Flag Is there vertical insulation note values 1 yes 0 no EquivalentSlab or GroundHeatTransfer Slab EquivalentSlab Object This object provides the basic information for running a model that uses the area over perimeter ratio of the slab to determine the size of an equivalent rectangular slab Field APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab This field specifies the area over perimeter ratio of the slab in meters Field SLABDEPTH Thickness of slab on grade This field specifies the thickness of the slab in meters Note that the slab top surface is level with the ground surface so this is the depth into the ground The slab depth has a significant effect on the temperature calculation and it is also important for the auto grid process The finite difference grids are set in such a way that they use the slab thickness to determine the vertical grid spacing Because of this autogridding will fail if the slab thickness is specified larger than 0 25 meters The program also is set up so that the slab is a single fi
257. p program is simple and requires only two input fields soil condition and soil surface condition First the user will see the four following options in the screen for the selection of the soil condition 1 HEAVY AND SATURATED 2 HEAVY AND DAMP 3 HEAVY AND DRY 4 LIGHT AND DRY Among them the user should select the number corresponding to the particular soil condition This deter mines the thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of the surrounding soil After the selection of soil condition the user should also select the number corresponding to the condition of the ground surface above the earth tube from the eight following options 1 BARE AND WET 2 BARE AND MOIST BARE AND ARID BARE AND DRY COVERED AND WET o al A w COVERED AND MOIST EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 136 Auxiliary Programs 7 COVERED AND ARID 8 COVERED AND DRY This determines the absorption coefficient and the fraction of evaporation rate of the ground surface Note that both soil condition and soil surface condition are the average of the year not a particular time period within the year From this information and an analysis of the weather data the CalcSoilSurffemp program calculates the annual average soil surface temperature the amplitude of soil surface temperature and the phase constant of soil surface temperature The user must then add these parameters as input parameter into earth tube model in EnergyPlus Program Outputs As
258. pPWlInternalDataPath This call designates the path to the files listed above This is the location where the ProcessWeather call will expect to find the files Having this incorrectly specified is not fatal but will probably cause confusion VB declaration statement Private Declare Sub SetupPWInternalDataPath Lib EPlusWth ByVal strPath As String ByVal InPathLen As Long And a call from a VB program Call SetupPWInternalDataPath AppPath Len AppPath Likewise for Fortran 90 95 INTERFACE SUBROUTINE SetupPWInternalDataPath Path CHARACTER len INTENT IN Path Path where data files reside END SUBROUTINE END INTERFACE And then calling it from Fortran Character len 255 DataPath CALL SetupPWInternalDataPath trim DataPath EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 69 Auxiliary Programs SetFixOutOfRangeData As shown earlier file menu option in the weather converter utility there is an option to fix out of range data or not By default this is turned off does not fix data Again a character convention yes for fixing no for not fixing is used Case of the actual string is ignored VB Declaration statement Private Declare Sub SetFixOut fRangeData Lib EPlusWth ByVal strValue As String ByVal strValueLen As Long And calling it from VB Global FixOutOfRangeData As String FixOutOfRangeData Yes Call SetFixOutOfRangeData Fix0utOfRangeData Len Fix0utOfRangeData For Fortran 90 95 INTERF
259. ped for standards development and energy simulation by Joe Huang from data provided by National Climatic Data Center for periods of record from 12 to 21 years all ending in 2003 Joe Huang and Associates Moraga California USA Israel weather data MSI Weather data for Israel locations developed by Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering Technion Israel Institute of Technology Haifa Israel from data provided by the Israel Meteorological Service Representative Meteorological Year RMY Australia Climatic Data RMY Australia Representative Meteorological Year Climate Files Developed for the Australia Greenhouse Office for use in complying with Building Code of Australia These data are licensed through ACADS BSG Ltd for use by EnergyPlus users For use in any other formats users must contact ACADS BSG Ltd for licensing information The RMY data are 2006 Commonwealth of Australia Department of the Environment and Water Re sources Australia Greenhouse Office Canberra ACT Australia www greenhouse gov au buildings code html All intellectual property rights reserved Iranian Typical Meteorological Year ITMY Typical year weather files have been created for Tehran from weather data for 1992 through 2003 published by the Islamic Republic of Iran Meteorological Organization IRIMO for Tehran Mehrabad Developed for standards development and energy simulation by Joe Huang White Box Technologies New Zealand National Instit
260. pward heat flux W m2 K Field HIN Horizontal convection only heat transfer coefficient This field specifies the convection only heat transfer coefficient for walls horizontal heat flux W m2 K Field HIN Downward combined convection and radiation heat transfer coefficient This field specifies the combined thermal radiation and convection heat transfer coefficient for floors downward heat flux W m2 K Field HIN Upward combined convection and radiation heat transfer coefficient This field specifies the combined thermal radiation and convection heat transfer coefficient for floors upward heat flux W m2 K Field HIN Horizontal combined convection and radiation heat transfer coefficient This field specifies the combined thermal radiation and convection heat transfer coefficient for walls horizontal heat flux W m2 K ComBldg or GroundHeatTransfer Basement ComBldg Object This object specifies the 12 monthly average basement temperatures air temperature The last field allows a daily sine wave variation to be placed on the inside temperature During testing it was found that entering values for the daily sine wave amplitude had very little effect on the results Field January average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for January Field February average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for February Field March average temperatu
261. r 0 815 5 6697e 8 2934 340 6 References Walton 1983 Clark Allen 1978 for these calculations are contained in the references section at the end of this list of fields Field Global Horizontal Radiation This is the Global Horizontal Radiation in Wh m Total amount of direct and diffuse solar radiation in Wh m received on a horizontal surface during the number of minutes preceding the time indicated It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations It should have a minimum value of 0 missing value for this field is 9999 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 49 Auxiliary Programs Field Direct Normal Radiation This is the Direct Normal Radiation in Wh m Amount of solar radiation in Wh m received directly from the solar disk on a surface perpendicular to the sun s rays during the number of minutes preceding the time indicated If the field is missing 9999 or invalid 0 it is set to 0 Counts of such missing values are totaled and presented at the end of the runperiod Field Diffuse Horizontal Radiation This is the Diffuse Horizontal Radiation in Wh m Amount of solar radiation in Wh m received from the sky excluding the solar disk on a horizontal surface during the number of minutes preceding the time indicated If the field is missing 9999 or invalid 0 it is set to 0 Counts of such missing values are totaled and presented at the end of the runperiod Field Global Horizontal Illuminance
262. r IDF files that contain surfaces with more than four sides the options under Polygons with 5 Sides can affect the way the drawing is shown Polygons with gt 4 sides do not display with the DXF 3DFACE command used for surfaces of 3 and 4 sides which subsequently will display very nicely as a solid in many DXF viewers Thus there are four options which the user may choose to display gt 4 sided polygons e Attempt Triangulation This option attempts simple triangulation for the polygon gt 4 sides surfaces This triangulation will show in the wireframe views but will appear as a solid face in 3D views This triangulation is only for drawing purposes and does not affect the simulations in any way The triangle algorithm is not perfect and warnings do result when the software cannot triangulate a surface If unable to triangulate simply a warning error is generated to the EPDerr file e Thick Polyline With this option the gt 4 sided polygon appears as a thicker line in all views of the building model This option creates a thick line at the border of the polygon gt 4 sides surfaces It will look like a hole in the drawing with a thicker edge This thick border shows in wireframe as well as 3D views and can be confusing due to overlap with other surfaces e Regular Polyline With this option the gt 4 sided polygon appears as a wire frame line in all views of the building model This option creates a regular polyline
263. r analysis of Error 1 which gives the user a summary of the errors for Qload Qsource and Power An average error of 5 8 is achievable for all the values e The errors for all the individual catalog data points are displayed in worksheet RESULT Step 2b Improving the Set of Parameters PE Based Model e After the initial set of parameters has been generated the user can increase the accuracy of the parameters by using parameters generated as the initial guess for the second simulation and increasing the accuracy of the program e Copy and Paste Parameters 1 to Initial Guess 2 Change the initial guess indicator Which Initial Guess from 1 to 2 e Increase the accuracy by twice For example set accuracy to 0 000001 e Now click on Button 2 shown below to generate the second set of parameters 2 Generate Parameters The simulation time would most likely be less but it depends on the accuracy value as well And the parameters generated will be displayed at Parameter 2 e Compare Error 2 to Error 1 the error values should be less which means that the parameters are getting better and more accurate e Repeat the steps in 2a and 2b until a desired set of error values is achieved or the errors stop decreasing Step 3 Generating EnergyPlus Input Parameters e Click on the Button 3 shown below to convert and arrange the parameters generated to fit EnergyPlus Input File IDF which will be listed from cell B52 B59 for cooling mode an
264. r program can ignore these and just report them or it can try to fix them with appropriate values If the option is checked then the processor will try to fix the data if it is blank the processor will not fix the data though it will report any out of range data that it finds Select Delta DB Trigger Depending on the quality control and accuracy of the weather data collection time period usually hour to hour changes in some data values may make the data suspect for that time period This selection brings up the screen shown below and will allow the user some control over the actual value reporting Note that this data is not fixed merely reported by the program in the audit output file C Use Calculated Value as primary trigger C Use5 C C Use 15 C FF Ignore Calculated Value Figure 2 Delta DB Trigger Selection Though only one trigger value is selected from this screen consecutive values of dry bulb temperature dew point temperature and wind speed are reported using appropriate calculated values Both dew point and wind speed use a calculated value based on mean of their values over the entire data period and standard deviation from that mean heuristically derived An excerpt from the audit file is illustrative Average Delta DB Change 0 78 C Std Dev 0 83 C Average Delta DP Change 0 68 C Std Dev 0 78 C Average Delta Relative Humidity Change 4 02 Std Dev 4 22 Average Delta Wind Speed C
265. rProjectiiew3d32 16 Sette Esset Nera Wesen OtherWall1 Floor 12 50 3 60 0 50 50 Nos 1 rn 196 0 3000 3000 270 180 30 90 90 o 180 Base Surface Length 1 20 GrossExterior Surface Area Facing Direction Ded 20 E Venica Coord Figure 18 View Factor Interface ZoneSheet Either sheet can be used to generate an input file for the View3D program An example of that file is shown below EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 106 Auxiliary Programs A B C D E F G H 1 po Not Move Rows 2 View Factor Calculator Interface Sheet El Eaa n 5 Test case from Excel interface T na lc Control line 9 10 Et Browse f InputFilePath CiEnergyPlustiRadiationviewF actorProjectiTestFiles 12 13 Input FileNam testvertex 14 View3D Progr CAEnergyPlusiRadiationViewfF actorProjectiview3d32 16 17 Surface Name SouthWall EastWall NorthWall WestwWall Floor Roof 18 Number of Sides 19 Vertex1X 0 0 0 0 0 20 Vertext Y 0 0 0 0 60 30 21 Vertex1Z 0 0 0 0 0 8 8 22 Vertex2X 50 24 Vertex2Z 0 0 0 0 0 8 8 25 Vertex3X 26 Vertex3 Y pao oa e e A e 90 27 Vertex3Z e al e ej o el l 28 Vertex 4x 50 50 0 0 0 0 29 Vertex 4 Y 0 60 60 0 60 30 0 30 Vertex4z el l el el 0 f 8 T Test case from Excel interface C encl 1 list uUa a N3 lt lt 3 lt 3 lt 60 00001 LO abb al N lt 3 lt lt 3 lt 3 lt
266. rameterEstimation Cooling lightslategray HeatPump WaterToWater ParameterEstimation Heating lightslategray AirTerminal SingleDuct Uncontrolled none Controller OutdoorAir none Controller WaterCoil none District Cooling none District Heating none LoadProfile Plant none OutdoorAir NodeList none ZoneH VAC Energy Recovery Ventilator Controller none ZoneH VAC IdealLoadsAirSystem none Generator CombustionTurbine orange Generator InternalCombustionEngine orange WaterHeater Mixed orange WaterHeater Stratified orange ZoneH VAC LowTemperatureRadiant ConstantFlow orangered ZoneH VAC LowTemperatureRadiant VariableF low orangered GroundHeatExchanger Pond paleturquoise GroundHeatExchanger Surface paleturquoise GroundHeatExchanger Vertical paleturquoise HeatExchanger AirToAir FlatPlate paleturquoise HeatExchanger AirToAir SensibleAndLatent paleturquoise HeatExchanger Hydronic paleturquoise CoolingTower SingleSpeed pink EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 128 Auxiliary Programs Object Name Color Chiller Absorption powderblue Chiller Combustion Turbine powderblue Chiller ConstantCOP powderblue Chiller Electric powderblue Chiller EngineDriven powderblue Chiller Heater A bsorption DirectFired powderblue Coil Heating Electric salmon Coil Heating Gas salmon Coil Heating Water salmon Coil Heating WaterToAirHeatPump EquationFit salmon Coil Heating WaterToAirHeatPump ParameterEstimation salmon ZoneHVAC Baseboard Convective Water
267. ratures at higher elevations the seasonal changes of C D and E climates are not present The following shows an overview of the world and its K ppen classifications Pesci 1 4 7 LT EN y e muc E ofa E Dwa Figure 8 World viewed as K ppen Climate Zones And a more basic view with monthly dry bulb temperature and dew point temperatures for these zones Northern Hemisphere ASHRAE Climate Classification For the ASHRAE 90 1 and 90 2 standards 2004 a climate zone classification scheme was introduced similar to the K ppen classification The methodology is described in two ASHRAE Transactions papers Briggs 2002 EnergyPlus Weather File EPW Data Dictionary The data dictionary for EnergyPlus Weather Data is shown below Note that semi colons do NOT ter minate lines in the EnergyPlus Weather Data It helps if you have familiarity with the IDD conventions EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 41 Auxiliary Programs Monthly DB Temperatures for 20 Locations Using Koppen Climate Classification System Am 40 BSk 30 20 Dec 20 Monthly Average Dry Bulb Temperature C 30 40 50 Figure 9 Monthly Dry Bulb Temperatures in K ppen Climates Northern Hemisphere Monthly DP Temperatures for 20 Locations Using Koppen Climate Classification System Am 30 BSk 20 Dec 10 20 Monthly Average Dewpoint Temperature C 30 40 50
268. re This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for March Field April average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for April EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 99 Auxiliary Programs Field May average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for May Field June average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for June Field July average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for July Field August average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for August Field September average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for September Field October average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for October Field November average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for November Field December average temperature This field is the average air temperature C for the basement for December Field Daily variation sine wave amplitude This field is the amplitude variation for a daily sine wave variation to be placed on the inside temperature This has been shown to have little effect on results so zero can be used safely EquivSlab or GroundHeat Transfer Basement EquivSlab Object This object provides the information nee
269. re defined will be printed clear Clear all macro definitions All the macro names defined up to this point will be deleted reserve TEXT k NAMES STACK m Allocates memory Reserveskwords of space in AA array for macro definition storage Reserveslpositions in macro definition names table Reservesmwords of stack space If used the reserve command must precede all other macro commands in the EP MACRO input This command should be used only if one or more of the following error messages is received Need more memory for storing macro definitions Use reserve TEXT nnnnnn command to get more memory Current value of nnnnnn is 1 Macro table capacity exceeded Use reserve NAMES nnnnnn command to get more memory Current value of nnnnnn is Macro stack overflow Use reserve STACK nnnnnn command to get more memory Current value of nnnnnn is 7 Allows you to enter comment lines inside a macro is printed in the EP MACRO echo but is not acted on by the macro processor Example This example shows the use of the set 7finclude eval and if commands Let an external file called cities idf contain the following text EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 124 Auxiliary Programs if city EQS CHICAGO Location Chicago IL Location Name 41 880 Latitude 87 63 Longitude 6 0 Time Zone DIM Elevation m elseif city EQS WASHIN
270. reates an EnergyPlus input file from a DOE 2 1E input file The translation is not intended to be complete but simply an aid to help you move your library of DOE 2 1E input files into EnergyPlus You should look over the resulting EnergyPlus input file review the documentation of EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 156 Auxiliary Programs EnergyPlus and make any necessary edits to the translated file Documentation is included here though the BLAST Translator is no longer included with the EnergyPlus Installation it is available as a special download for those who need it To use the DOE2Translator program at the DOS prompt or the command prompt for Windows NT 2000 systems go to the directory that the DOE2 Translator is located That directory is likely to be c EnergyPlus V PreProcess DOE2 Translator In this directory there should be several files DOE2Translator exe the program D2E macr txt a support file that contains the header of the translated file D2comkey dat a support file that contains a list of DOE 2 keywords Samp4n inp sample DOE 2 1E input file Samp4n imf the EnergyPlus macro input file resulting from the sample To use the DOE2Translator simply type DOE2Translator Where you substitute the file you want to translate for without a file extension The inp file extension is assumed For example if you want to translate one of the sample DOE 2 1E input files you would type DOE2Translator samplb The can al
271. rol Most of the items in this element are particularly applicable to custom format input files Currently they are only used in custom files but may be more generally applicable in future releases Field NumRecordsToSkip This is an integer number of records to skip during processing You might use this if your input file has some information at the top of the file Field MaxNumRecordsToRead This is an integer number of records to read typically 8760 for a full year You might use this if your input file has some information after the data records Fields MissingDataAction MissingWindDirAction MissingOpaqueSkyCoverAction These fields tell the converter program what to do with missing data Missing data can be found in two forms totally not included in the DataElements or a missing value as defined in the EPW format Valid values for these fields are e DEFAULT use the default processing that the weather converter already uses starts off with a specific value and updates if data is found e CONSTANT use a constant value to replace all missing data e RANDOM use a random number to generate the missing data e An additional value for MissingOpaqueSkyCoverAction is e TOTALSKY use the value for Total Sky Cover Fields MissingWindDir Value MissingOpaqueSkyCoverValue The values specified in this field are used with the action fields previously mentioned Field MaxWindSpeed The default maximum wind speed 40m s may not
272. rs and monthly line graphs The program window can be resized EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 199 Auxiliary Programs The first time the program is started no graphs are shown because no files have been selected To select files use the Manage Files button This brings up the Manage Files dialog box shown below T Manage Files C EnergyPlus 4 0 0 ExampleFiles SZoneWaterLoopHeatPumpTable html E Add File C EnergyPlusY4 0 OExampleFiles 5ZoneWLHPPlantLoopTowerTable html Add Directory Remove Remove All The top file in the fist is used as the baseline file Drag filer to change order Figure 51 EP Compare Dialog box This dialog lets you add and remove files from the list of files The files selected should be HTML or HTM files that are produced by EnergyPlus when using the Output Table SummaryReports object with OutputControl Table Style set to produce HTML files It is best to compare files that have similar reports otherwise missing values will be shown as zeros The dialog also provides a button to add entire directories of files but that adding too many files makes the graphs difficult to understand To change the order that files appear in the graph the files can be dragged up and down the list of files in the Manage Files dialog The dialog box window can be resized to view longer files names if necessary When EP Compare is started again the files last selected are shown in the graph if they are still avail
273. rsion Updater onte Re Ee edd ARUM d o 111 Transition Console Program Details o 00 0000 00000000004 112 IDF Version Converter Transition File Lists 00000000004 112 Converting imf fles 2o E ARS Be a Pee x qu Wd 113 EPDrawGQUL 124 NASA VA OOS ORG ee ROE a eee alae E ud 113 Maia ka De deesset o es e fat se ee ath Sl eth te Une agen ease Oe esce Ld da Me ae ut ay A 115 Option Tabu sume ME ERR SRA REET Puede UE a E 115 Input Macros 23 5X A A he ee Oe OE Y Xu y vk E AURIS E UE 116 no o DX A TT A a e ae a en a a Da Sa M a a e A 116 Running the EP Macro programa 117 Incorporating External Files 4 x3 63S LETXT AAA RV a Aes 117 Selectively Accepting or Skipping Lines of Input e e 119 Defining Blocks of Input i ss esee BEERS rs 9 93 a 309 he ae 120 Macro Debugging and Listing Control es 123 Expand comment ene tote utm os mue e ppp ERU AA ee Be Bae he a rA 123 noexpandcomiment x RR REE Ru Pee SR ESS Sox rok XS SR 124 Listring Rortnat 2 2 4 a a aes Ue Te e eee i tt we q Se X GE dou Pada ts Ge Gite 125 AVAC Diagram 43 333 RUP SEE E Bb 4G kai eR OO E TX IAS PPS P 125 Introdu ctlon s vemm bv he RBS E NA AA e v xu eek ed 125 Co tiConv CoetfOheck ea e owe dT X EE RIS Y PR y e e ed 129 Cocoon fo Sea yd d dud bores Ro aste b m PSP 129 CoettGheclc cus oe ete ir da le Ae uode do a AN ASIN IS oe Reti metas arta LA ca uro Ed 130 Running the CoeffConv or CoeffCheck programs ee 131
274. s 22x a A ee A EE De edle te ee qe d 73 Ground Heat Transfer in EnergyPlus ouaaa aaa 74 Caution go Ge dik are es habe oh ee MR BES OES Ge quies S xu CRAS 74 Introduction s 2o e A A od dee e a ue a op EE ES Sle Got ee dd 74 Use of the Ground Temperatures with Slabs 2 2 2 2 0 0 000000 eee ee eee 75 Slab configuration Drawing s i eee 77 Running the Slab Program u c E o o PEE EE PG Gh d 78 Technical Details on Files for Ground Heat Transfer with Slabs 79 Slab Program Output Files eee eA 79 Description of the Objects in the E SIAbGHT IDD lle 81 Auxiliary Programs Using Ground Temperatures with Basements en 90 Running the Basement Program es 90 Technical Details on Files for Ground Heat Transfer with Basements 92 Basement Program Output Files oo 93 The Basementidd x33 49 mom oec p a ae e a ah Se a ee qv 93 Description of the Objects in the BasementGHT idd o oo 96 Using the Interface Surface Temperature Results in EnergyPlus 103 References n o soudure QUALIA daba GER ON ee EA Ba oi IRE CY Y uns 105 View Factor Calculation Program 106 Associated Ele usos tte te a pt tmu Statin AA E EE uA WE qq REESE 106 Using the View Factor Interface program ees 106 Additional Information 6044 04 ra EP 4G uut wale Y UE X Xu 110 Using Older Version Input Files Transition es 111 IDF Ve
275. s Since Last Snowfall This is the value for Days Since Last Snowfall It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations Missing value is 99 Field Albedo The ratio unitless of reflected solar irradiance to global horizontal irradiance It is not currently used in EnergyPlus Field Liquid Precipitation Depth The amount of liquid precipitation mm observed at the indicated time for the period indicated in the liquid precipitation quantity field If this value is not missing then it is used and overrides the precipitation flag as rainfall Conversely if the precipitation flag shows rain and this field is missing or zero it is set to 1 5 mm EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 53 Auxiliary Programs Field Liquid Precipitation Quantity The period of accumulation hr for the liquid precipitation depth field It is not currently used in EnergyPlus References Walton G N 1983 Thermal Analysis Research Program Reference Manual NBSSIR 83 2655 National Bureau of Standards p 21 Clark G and C Allen The Estimation of Atmospheric Radiation for Clear and Cloudy Skies Proceedings 2nd National Passive Solar Conference AS ISES 1978 pp 675 678 EPW CSV Format In Out EPW CSV Format to the Weather Converter is a special CSV format which echoes the format of the EPW file For the header records in the CSV file they are basically the same as the header records for the EPW file see above However in the CSV file
276. s Version 8 2 Page 191 Auxiliary Programs Edit or Select Node Names Dialog The following dialog box is displayed when the small button is pressed that is on the right side of cells used for node names Double clicking on cells containing node names can also make the dialog box appear Edit or Select Node Name Class Object Name Field Coil Cooling Water DA Cooling Coil 1 Air Inlet Node Name Node Name DA Heating Coil 1 Air Outlet Node Other Node Names C All Recent Containing Class or Field Filter by Object or Field Main Cooling Cod 1 Outlet Node AitLoopH VAC Main Cooling Coil 1 Water Inlet Node AitLoopHVAC RetumPath Main Cooling Coil 1 Water Outlet Node F P i Mixed Air Node 1 AilLoopHVAC RetumPlenum OA Cooling Coil 1 Water Inlet Node23 amp AitLoopHVAC SupplyPath D Cooling Coil 1 Water Outlet Node AilLoopHWAC ZoneSplitter D Heating Coil 1 Air Outlet Node AirTerminalSingleDuct VAV Reheat DA Mixing Box 1 Inlet Node AvailabilityM anager LowT emperatureT umOff Sensor Node Name Boiler HotWater Branch Chiller Electric Coil Cooling Water Water Inlet Node Name Water Outlet Node Name Air Inlet Node Name Air Outlet Node Name Coi Heating Water Controller Dutdoor ir Controller WaterCoil FanVariable Volume NodeList DutdoorAir Mixer Dutdoor ir Node Mitdarrdirhlardal iet Containing Text 2222222 Air Inlet Node Name Controller WaterCol Cancel Figure 44 Edit or Select No
277. s Version 8 2 Page 74 Auxiliary Programs most important parameter for the zone calculation is the outside face temperature of the building surface that is in contact with the ground Thus this becomes a reasonable separation plane for the two calculations It was further decided that the current usage of monthly average ground temperature was reasonable for this separation plane temperature as well since the time scales of the building heat transfer processes are so much shorter than those of the ground heat transfer processes Using the separation plane premise the 3D ground heat transfer programs for slabs developed by Bahnfleth 1989 1990 were modified by Clements 2004 to produce outside face temperatures EnergyPlus permits separate monthly average inside temperatures as input The program produces outside face temperatures for the core area and the perimeter area of the slab It is described in the section Use of the Ground Temperatures with Slabs below A 3D basement program also is included with EnergyPlus This is described below in Using Ground Tem peratures with Basements It uses the same principle as the slab procedure it determines the outside face surface temperature of the walls and floor of a basement in contact with the ground It should be noted that either for slabs or basements the ground heat transfer is usually small unless the building is very small or has some special characteristics Multiple Ground Temp
278. s as thermal mass furniture and realistic exchange limits However when a user desires to supply view factors this auxiliary program can be used to calculate them for a variety of configurations The program is named View3D and was developed at NIST 1 This document will describe how to use the program Associated Files Three files come with the auxiliary view factor package They are e View3D exe e ViewFactorInterface xls e View3D32 doc The first is the executable program that calculates the view factors The second is an excel interface that will set up the input files and execute View3D exe The third file is the documentation file from NIST that contains some explanation of the program Using the View Factor Interface program The interface program has two main sheets One named ZoneSheet uses surface areas tilts and facing directions to develop the input for View3D The other one named VerticesZoneSheet uses the surface vertices to develop the input for View3D The sheets are shown in Figure 24 and Figure 25 A B Cc D E F G H 1 Do Not Move Rows _ j 2 View Factor Calculator Interface Sheet 3 4 5 6 Title Test case from Excel interface 7 encl list eps maxu maxo mino emit 8 C Control line 1 2 1 00E 04 8 8 0 0 9 10 11 Browse InputFilePath C3EnergyPlusiRadiationViewF actorProjectiSplitAtriumExample 12 13 Input FileNam Testdxf3Dface 14 15 Browse View3D Progr C EnergyPlusiRadiationviewF acto
279. s in various formats Typically the files are ASCII but the data items units item location and record length vary from format to format NCDC can provide historical data in a variety of formats TD 3280 TD 3510 TD 9950 DATSAV2 TD 9956 DATSAV3 and TD 1440 CD144 The EnergyPlus weather processor cannot process any of the types directly Table 18 Summary of Downloadable Weather Data by Type WMO Region North and Central America USA CityUHK CSWD CTZ2 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 64 Auxiliary Programs WMO Region CWEC ETMY IGDG IMGW INETI ISHRAE ITMY IWEC KISR Los Alamos TMY2 MSI NIWA RMY SWEC SWERA TMY TMY2 TMY3 Totals One other format worth mentioning is TRY TRY is test reference year data that did not include solar radiation data Test Reference Year is a term that usually denotes selection of a specific year of real data based on some statistical procedure The original TRY data TD 9706 was based on an ASHRAE procedure to select the data from a period of record The principle of the selection is to eliminate years in the period of record containing months with extremely high or low mean temperatures until only one year remains The weather conversion utility cannot process data in TRY format However many organizations develop data for reference year data e g European TRY Moisture Reference Data Custom Format Using a definitions file see Des
280. s land surface It receives more precipitation than the Bw either from the inter tropical convergence zone or from mid latitude cyclones Moist Subtropical Mid Latitude Climates C This climate generally has warm and humid summers with mild winters Its extent is from 30 to 50 degrees of latitude mainly on the eastern and western borders of most continents During the winter the main weather feature is the mid latitude cyclone Convective thunderstorms dominate summer months Three minor types exist Cfa humid subtropical Cs mediterranean and Cfb marine The humid subtropical climate Cfa has hot muggy summers and mainly thunderstorms Winters are mild and precipitation during this season comes from mid latitude cyclones A good example of a Cfa climate is the southeastern USA Cfb marine climates are found on the western coasts of continents They have a humid climate with short dry summer Heavy precipitation occurs during the mild winters because of continuous presence of mid latitude cyclones Mediterranean climates Cs receive rain primarily during winter season from the mid latitude cyclone Extreme summer aridity is caused by the sinking air of the subtropical highs and may exist for up to 5 months Locations in North America are from Portland Oregon to all of California Moist Continental Mid latitude Climates D Moist continental mid latitude climates have warm to cool summers and cold winters The location of these climates is
281. s reproduced below EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 193 Auxiliary Programs e The save options are related to the layout of the IDF file after it is saved These options are not important if you never edit the IDF file with a text editor e The sorted order of saving objects is the traditional way the IDF Editor sorts objects within files Each type of object is presented in groups in the order they appear in the Energy4 IDD The other options preserve the original order of the objects from the file but each object will be still be reformatted By preserving the order the objects are not rearranged so you can group them using a text editor and they will stay in that order New objects are placed either near the top of the file or near the bottom of the file so that they can be easily found when using a text editor e You can also choose to specially format some objects This affects how individual fields in objects are arranged when saved Selecting this option will format the following objects on a single line Report Report Meter Report Variable Version Timestep in Hour Inside Convection Algorithm Outside Convection Algorithm Solution Algorithm Shadowing Calculations Ground Reflectances and Ground Temperatures Deep In addition Schedule Compact objects will be formatted to have two field for some lines With this option objects with geometric vertices are formatted to have the X Y and Z values on the same line Those objects include S
282. s useful when files are used with very long file path names Alternative layout Changes the layout of the EP Launch window to an alternative arrangement of buttons Miscellaneous Options Tab Delimited Open with Spreadsheet Selecting Single File and then Main Results File from the View menu or pressing the F4 function key will open TAB files with the default spreadsheet application rather than the text editor Comma separated variable CSV is the default setting for viewing tabulated results set in the RVI file If the user changes the setting for viewing tabulated results to TAB or TXT format selecting Single File and then Main Results File from the View menu or pressing the F4 function key will open the files in the default text editor TAB files when selected will also be opened by the text editor when the Text Output Files button is pressed after a successful run Allow More Than 250 Columns Tabulated data that exceeds 250 columns the MS Excel maximum will be truncated to that limit unless Allow 7250 Columns is selected Excel versions prior to 2007 were limited to 255 columns in a sheet later versions allow unlimited number of columns This limitation may not be true for other spreadsheet programs Check VERSION Prior to Simulation Automatically check the VERSION object in the selected EnergyPlus input file prior to simulation and if it is an older version than the current version will run the
283. salmon ZoneHVAC Unit Ventilator sandybrown Fan Constant Volume silver Fan OnOff silver Fan VariableVolume silver Fan ZoneExhaust silver Coil Cooling DX MultiSpeed skyblue Coil Cooling DX SingleSpeed skyblue Coil Cooling Water skyblue Coil Cooling Water DetailedGeometry skyblue Coil Cooling WaterToAirHeatPump EquationFit skyblue Coil Cooling WaterToAirHeatPump ParameterEstimation skyblue Coil Heating DX SingleSpeed skyblue Pump ConstantSpeed springgreen Pump VariableSpeed springgreen Dehumidifier Desiccant NoFans tan AirLoopHVAC ZoneMixer wheat AirLoopHVAC ZoneSplitter wheat AirTerminal DualDuct Constant Volume wheat AirTerminal DualDuct VAV wheat AirTerminal SingleDuct VAV NoReheat wheat AirTerminal SingleDuct VAV Reheat wheat Connector Splitter wheat Pipe Adiabatic wheat PlantLoopConnection wheat SolarCollector FlatPlate Water yellow CoeffConv CoeffCheck These two programs are stored in the PreProcess folder of your EnergyPlus installation under a folder CoeffConv CoeffConv CoeffConv is a program to convert DOE 2 temperature dependent curves in Fahrenheit to EnergyPlus curves in Centigrade The program converts the DOE 2 coefficients of a biquadratic curve to the equivalent EnergyPlus biquadratic curve coefficients EP Launch can be used to run the CoeffConv program CoeffConv is one of the options on the Utilities tab EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 129 Auxiliary Programs in EP Launch See the EP Launch section i
284. se By including the uncertainty and data source information found in TMY2 users now can evaluate the potential impact of weather variability on the performance of the building McDonald and Strachan 1998 are introducing uncertainty analysis into ESP r We use the EnergyPlus data dictionary format to describe the E E weather data set See the end of this document Each line in the format is preceded by a keyword such as LOCATION DESIGN CONDITIONS followed by a list of variables beginning either with A or N and a number A stands for alphanumeric N for numeric The number following A N is the sequence of that number in the keyword list Commas separate data Refer to the IDD Conventions document in Input Output Reference for further explanation of the format The header information consists of eight lines keywords LOCATION DESIGN CONDI TIONS TYPICAL EXTREME PERIODS GROUND TEMPERATURES HOLIDAYS DAYLIGHT SAV INGS COMMENTS 1 COMMENTS 2 and DATA PERIODS This is followed by the time step data The first eight lines or header within each E E weather file define basic location information such as longitude latitude time zone elevation annual design conditions monthly average ground temperatures typical and extreme periods holidays daylight saving periods and data periods included There is also space for users to document any special features or information about the file such as sources of data Weather Data Availability T
285. sent The user will be queried to make sure the sheets should be deleted During the succeeding run new sheets will be created Additional Information The interface and this document do not describe all of the features of the View3D program Additional information can be found in the NIST document View3D32 pdf that accompanies the distribution For example if an obstruction wall is desired it can be placed using the interface but then the C at the left end of the row describing that surface in the input file should be changed to O The program can then be rerun with the new input file If View3D exe is double clicked it will ask for the names of the input file and the output file An additional point should be emphasized The program will not calculate view factors for walls containing windows That is all surfaces must be convex Therefore a wall containing a subsurface must be described as four sections surrounding the subsurface They can be combined using the comb column as described in the View3D document However this in not necessary if the user is willing to work with a few additional surfaces EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 110 Auxiliary Programs Using Older Version Input Files Transition The transition program s are console programs that assist users in converting input files from prior release versions to the current or interim Sometimes many changes are made to the input file syntax sometimes very fe
286. sfer calculations are two or three dimensional This causes severe modeling problems irrespective of the methods being used for the ground heat transfer calculation The other difficulty is the markedly different time scales involved in the processes Basically the zone model is on an hour scale and the ground heat transfer is on a monthly time scale The basic heat balance based zone model of EnergyPlus has to be considered as the foundation for building energy simulation at the present time and for some time in the future Thus it is necessary to be able to relate ground heat transfer calculations to that model The heat balance zone model considers a single room or thermal zone in a building and performs a heat balance on it A fundamental modeling assumption is that the faces of the enclosure are isothermal planes A ground heat transfer calculation usually considers an entire building and the earth that surrounds it resulting in non isothermal face planes where there is ground contact While it is not impossible to imagine multi zone whole building models that include the surrounding earth and non isothermal building surfaces such models will not be practical for some time in the future and their usefulness even then is not clear The EnergyPlus development team addressed the problem and decided that the most reasonable first step would be to partially decouple the ground heat transfer calculation from the thermal zone calculation The EnergyPlu
287. sheet generates e parameters for the parameter estimation based model e coefficients for the curve fit model The following theses have detailed information about the curve fit model and parameter estimation based model Jin Hui 2002 Parameter Estimation Based Models of Water Source Heat Pumps Phd Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Shenoy Arun 2004 Simulation Modeling and Analysis of Water to Air Heat Pump M S Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Tang C C 2004 Modeling Packaged Heat Pumps in a Quasi Steady State Energy Simulation Program M S Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Step 1 Catalog Data Input Data points are obtained from the heat pump manufacturer data Minimum data points for the parameter estimation based model are 32 data points according to Jin 2002 The curve fit model performance is not affected by the number of data points and a minimum of 5 data points is required since the governing equations require 6 coefficients The data points must have varying inlet conditions e g water flow rates inlet water temperatures etc that covers the entire range of the heat pump operating conditions Correction tables provided by the manufacturer shou
288. shown in the dialog box below The list displays the values and locations for objects with values that are either above the maximum or below the minimum values This allows you to check your input for out of range values prior to running EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 196 Auxiliary Programs l ayout Options Figure 48 IDF Editor Layout Options Screen EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 197 Auxiliary Programs Validity Check Exceed maximum value 15 RunPeriod End Month Invalid choice x Material GPO1 Roughness Invalid reference W DO1 Construction ROOF 1 Layer 4 Invalid reference WDO1 Construction WALL 1 Outside Layer V Perform Validity Check When Saving File Figure 49 Validity Check Dialog Box EnergyPlus It also displays fields that contain invalid references An invalid reference is when a name is used that should be the name of object but no object exists that uses that name For example if a Construction object references a layer named IN20 but no Material or Material NoMass etc object is named IN20 When viewing the class that contains invalid references those references are shown with a different background color similar to numbers that are out of range The Validity Check dialog also shows when an entry for a field is not one of the possible lists of choices The Goto button allows you to jump directly to the selected identified problems The Perform Validity Check When Saving
289. shut off units C type real minimum 100 maximum 100 N3 field Maximum Zone Temperature when Heating required field note this is the indoor temperature above which the earth tube is shut off units C type real minimum 100 maximum 100 N4 field Delta Temperature EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 137 Auxiliary Programs required field note This is the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor below which the earth tube is shut off units deltaC type real minimum 0 A3 field Earthtube Type required field type choice key Natural key Intake key Exhaust default Natural N5 field Fan Pressure Rise required field note pressure rise across the fan type real units Pa minimum 0 default 0 N6 field Fan Total Efficiency required field type real minimum gt 0 default 1 N7 field Pipe Radius required field units m type real minimum gt 0 default 1 N8 field Pipe Thickness required field units m type real minimum gt 0 default 0 2 N9 field Pipe Length required field units m type real minimum gt 0 default 15 N10 field Pipe Thermal Conductivity required field units W m K type real minimum gt 0 default 200 N11 field Pipe Depth Under Ground Surface required field units m type real minimum gt 0 default 3 A4 field Soil Condition required field type choice key HeavyAndSaturated key HeavyAndDamp key HeavyAndDry key LightAndDry defa
290. sign Data 2001 ASHRAE Handbook HEATING 2531956959 AS SAL o dd C2 O OSO ORO ORO ZOCO DEBEN 290252292029 A A SIS SSA DASS AS A AS e SMS SS GAME 6 MAS ASS AS However if there are no design conditions then the format looks like Number of Design Conditions Title of Design Condition 0 Theoretically there can be more than one design condition included Typical Extreme Periods Header Data CSV The results from the typical extreme period heuristic calculation are shown Number of Typical Extreme Periods Period Name Period Type Period Start Day Period End Day lt repeat to periods 6 Summer Week Nearest Max Temperature For Period Extreme 1 4 1 10 Summer Week Nearest Average Temperature For Period Typical 11 29 12 5 Winter Week Nearest Min Temperature For Period Extreme 7 3 7 9 Winter Week Nearest Average Temperature For Period Typical 6 5 6 11 Autumn Week Nearest Average Temperature For Period Typical 3 22 3 28 Spring Week Nearest Average Temperature For Period Typical 8 1 8 7 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 54 Auxiliary Programs Ground Temperatures Header Data CSV The results from the ground temperature heuristic calculation are shown typically for 3 depths Users may also fill in the blank fields soil conductivity soil density soil specific heat with known values and or perform their own calculations and depths and supply those These should be considered undisturbed ground temperatures te
291. sily ignored When it is important a single text field is conceptually and computationally easy to parse EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 6 Auxiliary Programs Another difference between the EnergyPlus ESP r E E format and TMY2 is the addition of two new data fields minute and infrared sky The minute field facilitates use of data observed at intervals of less than one hour such as measured data from a research study of energy efficiency for a particular building This will allow easier and more accurate calibration of a simulation model to measured data than possible in the past The infrared sky field allows the programs to calculate the effective sky temperature for re radiation during nighttime The last difference is that a full year of data such as 8760 hours is not required subsets of years are acceptable Which periods are covered by the data is described in the files Periods of typical weather patterns based on analysis of the data are also included within the format A side by side comparison of data included in the E E weather format with data previously used by ESP r DOE 2 and BLAST is shown in Table 1 A deficiency noted within ESP r for example is the lack of correcting air volumes for elevation change many of the users of ESP r are in relatively low elevations For DOE 2 and BLAST neither program used illumination data in daylighting calculations or infrared sky temperatures it was always recalculated at time of u
292. simulation itself but pauses before or after important events as files are copied or utility programs are run It is usually used only for diagnosing problems with the EPL RUN batch file The feature is also described in the Running a Single Input File section above EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 165 Auxiliary Programs File Edit Vie Help e Text Output Files Single Ing biia Seovescesereveccesesesees Drawing Files T InputF Spreadsheets C Enl HTML File Group File Bro Selected History File ERR EIO BND Output Files Only F2 Edit Text Editor Edit IDF Editor Weath Single File gt EEn Input File Folder Weather File Folder Group File Folder ago Hare Intl AP 725300 TMY 3 epw Options 5 Text Output Files Drawing File Set 1 a Spreadsheets HTML Set 6 EnerayPlus 6 0 0 002 Exit Figure 33 EP Launch View Menu EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Auxiliary Programs ptions Command window Command Window Control Interface Miscellaneous Text Editor Drawing Viewer VAML Viewer Minimize Group Simulation Command Window Spreadsheet Diagramming Humber of Simultaneous Pracesses 2 oF HTML Browser Usually 1 to 4 for mast PCs ESO Viewer i PDF Wiewer W Disable Muli Threading File Association Heset Fause During Simulation Unless Minimized Minimize Single Simulation Command Window Cance
293. sing manual gridding not recommended XFACE Ni N15 N30 YFACE Ni N15 N30 ZFACE memo Used only in special cases Ni field NX Number of cells in the X direction note typical values 15 N2 field NY Number of cells in the Y direction note typical values 15 N3 field NZ Number of cells in the Z direction note typical values 15 N4 field IBOX X direction cell indicator of slab edge note typical values 1 10 N5 field JBOX Y direction cell indicator of slab edge note typical values 1 10 memo This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended memo XFACE X Direction cell face coordinates m N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10 N11 N12 N13 N14 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 N27 N28 N29 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40 memo This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended memo YFACE Y Direction cell face coordinates m N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10 N11 N12 N13 N14 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 N27 N28 N29 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40 Wnemo This is only needed when usuing manual gridding not recommended memo ZFACE Z Direction cell face coordinates m Ni N2 N3 N4 N5 NG N7 N8 N9 N10 N11 N12 N13 N14 N15 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 Sample IDF File Slab Program A sample IDF file is shown below Generator IDFEd
294. sitioned to the new input file versions There are several methods to executing the transition program these methods give you the most flexibility in changing files from one version to the next The easiest transition is through the EP Launch program which can detect if the input file about to be run is of the same version as the IDD or not and suggest transitioning You can also manually transition from the file menu in EP Launch To have this feature you must also have the files from the preceding table in the same folder as EP Launch which is usually the folder that also has the EnergyPlus exe program There are two command line methods to execute the transition version from the Command Prompt One is to simply use the file name you want transitioned including rvi or mvi file names or you can use a file name with a lst extension and simply enter file names to be done in a text file When you execute the transition program in this fashion you will get the typical program defaults of a full transition field names will be shown at each field with units and any blank fields will be left blank rather than filled in with the current defaults IDF Version Converter Transition File Lists Both the console program and the IDF Version Updater see can use a text file of file names to perform the transitions The file is a very simple list of file names EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 112 Auxiliary Programs FileNamei Fil
295. so have a full path but it should not have an extension If you have spaces in your path name enclose the whole thing in Several files get created when you run the DOE2Translator program In the same directory as the DOE 2 1E input file a new file with the same name and the file extension of imf contains the EnergyPlus translation This is an EnergyPlus macro file and the macro processor EPMacro needs to be used The DOE2Tranlator uses many macros so using EPMacro is essensial EP Launch automatically runs EP Macro when an imf file is selected In the translated file comments shown with a tilde are messages from the DOE2Translator program that may be helpful in understanding the limits of the translation The D2EP log file contains a detailed log of the translation process The D2E_TEMP txt file contains an intermediate version of the log file Both of these files are created in the same directory as the DOE2 Translator program and can usually be deleted Since DOE 2 1e and EnergyPlus share a common macro language many macro features are passed to the EnergyPlus file unchanged including setl if def and other macro commands References to macro variables i e var and expressions i e x 1 are usually passed through to the resulting EneryPlus IMF unless the DOE2Translator needs to understand that field during the translation process The DOE2Translator does not evaluate macro expressions and if it
296. string choice alpha with specific list of choices see key object list link to a list of objects defined elsewhere see object list and reference node name used in connecting HVAC components retaincase Retains the alphabetic case for alpha type fields key Possible value for type choice blanks are significant use multiple key lines to indicate all valid choices object list Name of a list of user provided object names that are valid entries for this field used with reference see Zone and BuildingSurface Detailed objects below for examples Note that a field may have multiple object list commands reference Name of a list of names to which this object belongs used with type object list and with object list see Zone and BuildingSurface Detailed objects below for examples Zone A1 field Name type alpha reference ZoneNames BuildingSurface Detailed A4 field Zone Name note Zone the surface is a part of type object list EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 186 Auxiliary Programs Nobject list ZoneNames For each zone the field Name may be referenced by other objects such as BuildingSurface Detailed so it is commented with reference ZoneNames Fields that reference a zone name such as BuildingSurface Detailed s Zone Name are commented as Ntype object list and object list ZoneNames Note that a field may have multiple reference commands This is useful if the obje
297. structions Complete the following path and program names path names must have a following or errors will happen does not have the capability to run input macro files yet program_path contains the path to the executable as well as IDD and is the root directory program_name contains the name of the executable normally EnergyPlus exe input path contains the path to the input file passed in as first argument Zoutput_path contains the path where the result files should be stored Apost proc contains the path to the post processing program ReadVarsESO weather_path contains the path to the weather files used with optional argument 2 pausing contains Y if pause should occur between major portions of batch file mostly commented out maxcol contains 250 if limited to 250 columns otherwise contains nolimit if unlimited used when calling readVarsESO echo 40 Run EnergyPlus 41 42 Start set program path set program name EnergyPlus exe set input path ExampleFilesV set output path TestN set post_proc PostProcess set weather_path WeatherData set pausing N set maxcol 250 This batch file will perform the following steps Clean up directory by deleting old working files from prior run Clean up target directory Copy 1 idf input into In idf Copy 42 weather into In epw Execute EnergyPlus If available Copy 1 rvi post processor commands into Eplusout inp Execute ReadVarsESO exe th
298. sult file out idf is equivalent to SCHEDULE Constant At 0 8 Fraction WeekON 1 1 12 31 WEEKSCHEDULE WeekON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DayON DAYSCHEDULE DayON Fractio 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 n ONG 0 8 oo 8 0 8 0 8 0 8 8 0 8 8 0 8 O 0 8 5 0 8 0 8 gt gt 3 Macro definitions may have one or more arguments the maximum number of arguments is 32 When a macro with arguments is referenced its arguments must be given values When a macro has no arguments the brackets are still required both for macro definition and reference Caution Square brackets have been used in some versions of EnergyPlus inputs as commen t units fields These will be expanded if left in the IDF and sent to EPMacro EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 120 Auxiliary Programs Macro names must be unique except see set1 below i e when a macro name is defined it cannot be defined again Macro names are limited to 40 characters To summarize commands you use to define macros are the following def macro name arg1 argn macro text Defines a macro with the name macro name and arguments arg1 through argn Macro text is one or more lines of text If there are no arguments the syntax is Z zzdef macro name macro text enddef Indicates the end of the macro definition initiated by def def1 macro name arg1 argn macro
299. t amp 2nd independent variables comma separated The 6th line contains the delta T for the output performance map The output file is CoeffCheckOutput txt status NEW There is an example input file and an example output file installed with the program Running the CoeffConv or CoeffCheck programs EP Launch can be used to run both the CoeffConv and CoeffCheck programs CoeffConv and CoeffCheck are two of the options on the Utilities tab in EP Launch See the EP Launch section in this document for more information on how to use EP Launch with the CoeffConv and CoeffCheck programs You can also run both programs as console applications and because they are small they are automatically installed with EnergyPlus You will need to open a command window using the following steps 1 Open a DOS command prompt window Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt 2 Change to the directory where EnergyPlus is installed modify the commands below if you did not install EnergyPlus in the default install path C CD lt rootfolder gt 1 Change to the specific folder for the coefficient conversion applications CD PreProcess CoeffConv 1 Run the program After creating your files as shown above enter either CoeffConv or CoeffCheck as desired The folder also contains a readme txt file which you can peruse ExpandObjects Introduction The ExpandObjects program uses HVACTemplate objects in the IDF file to expand them into fu
300. t are included with the install The first parts of this section deal with using EnergyPlus on a Wintel Windows OS system Though similar commands can be used on other OS such as Linux they will not be exactly the same commands usually EP Launch Program EP Launch is an optional component of the EnergyPlus Windows installation it is not available for Linux and Mac platforms For users that want a simple way of selecting files and running EnergyPlus EP Launch provides this and more In addition EP Launch can help open a text editor for the input and output files open a spreadsheet for the postprocessor results files a web browser for the tabular results file and start up a viewer for the selected drawing file Start EP Launch EP Launch is located in the main directory folder for EnergyPlus In addition it is available on the shortcut menu for EnergyPlus By double clicking on the EP Launch icon you get the screen shown above Figure 35 for running a single input file The EP Launch program simply starts other programs and allows you to avoid having to use the DOS command line prompt to run EnergyPlus More help is provided for the program under the Help menu EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 159 Auxiliary Programs e EP Launch Single Input File Group of Input Files History Utilities m Input File C EnergyPlus 5 0 0 fix E amp ampleFiles amp ZoneAirCooled idf Y Browse Edit Text Editor Edit IDF Edi
301. tal solar energy absorbed by a horizontal surface is 1 albedo Total solar Typical value for this field is 0 40 Field EPSLN Surface emissivity No Snow This field specifies the long wavelength or thermal radiation emissivity for the ground surface under no snow conditions Typical value is 0 94 Field EPSLN Surface emissivity with Snow This field specifies the long wavelength or thermal radiation emissivity for the ground surface under snow covered conditions Typical value is 0 86 Field VEGHT Surface roughness No snow conditions This field specifies the surface roughness or vegetation height cm that is used in determining the convective heat transfer coefficient on the surface under no snow conditions Typical value is 6 0 Field VEGHT Surface roughness snow conditions This field specifies the surface roughness or vegetation height cm that is used in determining the convective heat transfer coefficient on the surface under snow covered conditions Typical value is 0 25 Field PET Flag Potential evapotranspiration on This field is a flag that invokes the evapotran spiration calculation at the surface This covers all forms of latent heat transfer from the surface It normally should be included The user enters true for yes and false for no BldgData or GroundHeatTransfer Basement BldgData Object This object specifies the major configuration parameters for the basement The 3 D grid used in the simu latio
302. te the catalog data and select from the list of refrigerants Usually the refrigerant used is R22 e Which Initial Guess The user may choose a set of initial guesses 1 5 that will be used by the optimization routine in generating the parameters Start with 1 which is the set of initial guesses 1 at column B e Initial Guess Initial guess for all the parameters For Initial Guess 1 enter a value of 1 for all the parameters except for the loss factor less than 1 0 The loss factor should be less than 1 0 because the efficiency of the compressor should be less than 10096 Adjust the values in Initial Guess 1 if the program happens to crash and try again e Now click on Button 2 shown below to generate the parameters 2 Generate Parameters It will take some time to generate the parameters depending on the number of data points The parameters generated will be displayed at Parameters 1 Look at the error analysis of Error 1 which gives the user a summary of the errors for Qtotal Qsensible Qsource and Power An average error of 5 896 is achievable for all the values e The errors for all the individual catalog data points are displayed in worksheet RESULT Step 2b Improving the Set of Parameters PE Based Model e After the initial set of parameters has been generated the user can increase the accuracy of the parameters by using parameters generated as the initial guess for the second simulation and increasing the accuracy
303. te typica 1 value 0 1 Insulation or GroundHeatTransfer Slab Insulation Object This object supplies the information about insulation used around the slab There are two possible configu rations under the slab or vertical insulation around the slab Field RINS R value of under slab insulation This field provides the thermal resistance value of the under slab insulation It should be zero if the vertical insulation configuration is selected Units are m K W Field DINS Width of strip of under slab insulation This specifies the width of the perimeter strip of insulation under the slab in meters Again a zero value should be used for the vertical insulation configuration Units are m EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 85 Auxiliary Programs Field RVINS R value of vertical insulation This field specifies the thermal resistance of the vertical insulation It should be zero if the under slab insulation configuration is in effect Units are m K W Field ZVINS Depth of vertical insulation This field specifies the depth of the vertical insulation into the ground in meters Note that it starts at the slab upper surface and extends into the ground Only 2 4 6 8 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5 or 3 0 m should be used Units are m Field IVINS Flag Is there vertical insulation This final field specifies that vertical the vertical insulation configuration is being used The value of 1 specifies yes and 0 specifies no The Insulation object is shown bel
304. tegray HeatPump WaterToWater ParameterEstimation Cooling lightslategray HeatPump WaterToWater ParameterEstimation Heating lightslategray Humidifier Steam Electric lavender LoadProfile Plant none OutdoorAir Mixer lawngreen OutdoorAir NodeList none Pipe Adiabatic wheat PlantLoopConnection wheat Pump ConstantSpeed springgreen EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 127 Auxiliary Programs Object Name Color Pump VariableSpeed springgreen SolarCollector FlatPlate Water yellow WaterHeater Mixed orange WaterHeater Stratified orange ZoneH VAC Baseboard Convective Water salmon ZoneH VAC Energy Recovery Ventilator Controller none ZoneHVAC EquipmentConnections chartreuse ZoneH VAC IdealLoadsAirSystem none ZoneH VAC LowTemperatureRadiant ConstantFlow orangered ZoneH VAC LowTemperatureRadiant VariableF low orangered ZoneHVAC Unit Ventilator sandybrown Table 38 HVAC Diagram Object Names and Color primary sort Object Name Color EvaporativeCooler Direct CelDekPad aliceblue EvaporativeCooler Indirect CelDekPad aliceblue EvaporativeCooler Indirect ResearchSpecial aliceblue ZoneHVAC EquipmentConnections chartreuse Boiler Hot Water indianred Humidifier Steam Electric lavender OutdoorAir Mixer lawngreen AirLoopHVAC ReturnPlenum lightgreen AirLoopHVAC SupplyPlenum lightgreen Connector Mixer lightgreen HeatPump WaterToWater EquationFit Cooling lightslategray HeatPump WaterToWater EquationFit Heating lightslategray HeatPump WaterToWater Pa
305. ters coefficients for the water to air heat pump models in heating mode The Excel spreadsheets WaterAir PE Heating xls are used The spreadsheet generates e parameters for the parameter estimation based model e coefficients for the curve fit model The following theses have detailed information about the curve fit model and parameter estimation based model Jin Hui 2002 Parameter Estimation Based Models of Water Source Heat Pumps Phd Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Shenoy Arun 2004 Simulation Modeling and Analysis of Water to Air Heat Pump M S Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Tang C C 2004 Modeling Packaged Heat Pumps in a Quasi Steady State Energy Simulation Program M S Thesis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Oklahoma State University downloadable at www hvac okstate edu Step 1 Catalog Data Input Data points are obtained from the heat pump manufacturer data Minimum data points for the parameter estimation based model are 32 data points according to Jin 2002 The curve fit model performance is not affected by the number of data points and a minimum of 5 data points is required since the governing equations require 5 coefficients The data points must have varying inlet conditions e g air flow rates inlet
306. text This is the same as z zz def but there is only one line of text so that the terminating command enddef is not required set1 macro name macro text Like def1 but has no arguments and macro text is evaluated before storing Macro text is evaluated means that if macro text contains other macros these macros will be expanded and the expanded text becomes the macro text defined by set1 Example def1 xx 123 seti ya cest is equivalent to seti yy 123 seti can also be used to redefine macro name seti x 0 set1 x eval x 1 see Arithmetic Operations for description of the eval macro Arithmetic Operations The built in macro called eval can be used to perform arithmetic literal and logical operations It can be abbreviated to eval X OP Y or Z X OP Y gives the result X OP Y The allowed values for X OP and Y and the corresponding result are shown in the following table X OP Y Result number plus number number number minus number number number times number number number divided by number number number min number number number max number number number mod number number number power number number SIN OF number degrees number COS OF number degrees number TAN OF number degrees number EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 121 Auxiliary Programs X OP Y Result SQRT OF number number ABS OF number number ASIN OF number
307. the tabular reports It can be used in Windows Linux and Macintosh systems The main screen is shown below T EP Compare H O0 Manage Files Copy About AnnualBuildingUtilityPerformanceSummary Site and Source Energy AnnualBulldingUtilityPerformanceSummary Source to Site Energy Conversion Factors AnnualBuildingUtilityPerformanceSummary Building Area B AnnualBuildingUtilityPerformanceSummiary End Uses Electricity kBtu Stacked Bar Natural Gas kBtu Stacked Bar Other Fuel kBtu Stacked Bar District Cooling kBtu Stacked Bar District Heating kBtu Stacked Bar Water gal Stacked Bar Heating Stacked Bar AnnualBuildingUtilityPerformanceSummary End Uses Electricity kBtu Stacked Bar 133 367 40 El Heating Bl Cooling O Interior Lighting O Exterior Lighting B Interior Equipment Bl Exterior Equipment B Fans O Pumps E Heat Rejection Bl Humidification O Heat Recovery O Water Systems Bi Refrigeration E Generators LBuildingAppGRotParvth LBuildingAppGRotParvvith Monthly GOSOTable html Monthly GoooT able html Figure 50 EP Compare Main Screen The main screen shows both the graph being displayed at the bottom and allows the user to select a graph from a list at the top The list of graphs is based on each table name and subtable name and then has a list of graphs supported including stacked bars simple bar 100 stacked bars side by side ba
308. tons on this tab can open many files at the same time and are a shortcut to opening the files that may be commonly used The Text Output Files Drawing Files and Spreadsheets buttons cause several different results files to open at once based on the currently selected Input File The HTML file opens just the tabular results file if that file was produced see OutputControl Table Style The buttons labeled as Set 1 to Set 8 allow you to select which sets of files you want to open Press the Define button in order to define the files to view When the Define button is pressed on the Sets tab of the View Results section of the main screen the EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 162 Auxiliary Programs w Define Files to View bet Meter csv Meter tab Meter tet Table csv Table tab Table tet Table html rdd mdd eia sgvg dsf mtd sz csv Zsz tab Zaz txt 5sz csv Ssz tab Sz bat DElight in DE light aut Map csv Map tab hal Close Figure 32 Define Files to View EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 163 Auxiliary Programs dialog box in the figure above is shown This allows the files extensions to be selected that would be opened for each of the Set 1 to Set 8 buttons One or many files can be selected for each of the Set buttons This allows you to define exactly which files you want opened The content of each file e
309. tor Weather File C EnergyPlus 5 0 0 fix WeatherD ata USA4_IL_Chicago OHare IntLAP 725300_TMY3 epw Browse View Results Simulate EnergyPlus 6 0 0 002 Figure 29 EP Launch Screen EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 160 Auxiliary Programs Selecting Input and Weather Files The input file and weather files can be selected on the Single Input File tab from the two pull down lists which show recently used files or you can press the Browse buttons to locate an input or weather file that you have created yourself If this is your first time using EP Launch the pull down lists will show some files from the ExampleFiles subdirectory These are not the only examples use browse to open other example files from the ExampleFiles subdirectory or other EnergyPlus input files Running a Single Input File On the Single Input File tab after you select the weather and input files simply push the Simulate button to start the EnergyPlus building energy simulation engine At this point a black DOS window should pop up on your screen and show the progress of your simulation The simulation is complete when the black DOS box closes The EnergyPlus program black DOS window will show scrolling text as the simulation procedure progresses If you would like to see these messages more slowly you have two options 1 Press the Control S key combination to try to stop the progress and any key to continue
310. tput DebuggingData 0 is entered you will get an empty eplusout dbg file dxf This is a file in AutoCad DXF format showing all the surfaces defined in the IDF file It provides a means of viewing the building geometry The DXF file from EnergyPlus highlights different building elements shading walls subsurfaces in differing colors A number of programs can read and display DXF files Output of this file is triggered by Dutput Reports Surfaces DXF in the IDF sln A text file containing the coordinates of the vertices of the surfaces in the IDF Output of this file is triggered by Dutput Reports Surfaces Lines in the IDF EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 179 Auxiliary Programs Postprocessing Program Files A postprocessing program Read VarsESO exe is available that will read an ESO or MTR file and produce a file that can be read by Excel It can use an input file or not In batch mode it is run by the little batch file RunReadESO bat Further information on this program is provided in the Input Output Reference under a section heading called Using ReadVarsESO RunEPlus batch file It is simple to run EnergyPlus open a DOS or CMD box in the EnergyPlus directory and use the RunE Plus bat procedure file The procedure file takes two arguments the input file name containing the building description and the weather file name RunEPlus input file name weather file name gt Though it s possible to suppl
311. tput from the debug command Ctrl F11 SHD output related to shading Ctrl F12 SVG HVAC Diagram Shift F4 EPMIDF clean idf file after EP Macro processing Shift F5 EPMDET EP Macro detailed output with errors and warnings Shift F6 MAP daylighting illuminance map Shift F7 TABLE tabulated report of bin and monthly data in comma tab or space delimited or HTML format Shift F8 VMRL drawing file in VRML Virtual Reality Markup Language format Shift F F11 DXF drawing file in AutoCAD DXF format Shift F12 Delight IN DElight input generated from EnergyPlus processed input Shift Ctrl F4 Delight OUT Detailed DElight output Shift Ctrl F5 Delight ELDMP DElight reference point illuminance per time step Shift Ctrl F6 Delight DFDMP DElight warning and error messages Shift Ctrl F7 EXPIDF Expanded IDF when using HVACTemplate objects Shift Ctrl F8 Group Error combined error files for a group run Shift Ctrl F9 VCpErr Transition program error file Shift Ctrl F11 Screen Shift Ctrl f12 Proc CSV Simple statistiscs generated from CSVProc also see Create Statistics File option under View Options EDD Energy Management System details Clicking on the Drawing File button will open the generated DXF file if an appropriate viewer has been configured see Selecting Viewers and Editors below The DXF file is a CAD format that displays the EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 164 Auxili
312. traterrestrial Horizontal Radiation Extraterrestrial Direct Normal Radiation Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity from Sky Global Horizontal Radiation Direct Normal Radiation Diffuse Horizontal Radiation Global Horizontal Illuminance Direct Normal Illuminance Diffuse Horizontal Illuminance Zenith Luminance Wind Direction Wind Speed Total Sky Cover Opaque Sky Cover Visibility Ceiling Height Present Weather bservation Present Weather Codes Precipitable Water Aerosol Optical Depth Snow Depth Days Since Last Snow Albedo Liquid Precipitation Depth Liquid Precipitation Quantity Derrota Noe Use E Used E EOI A a savings A YA ro Mao lei Ia AE 6d mo dees mia tenths i tenthel En Vm x otc DO E Od ES tamen hr Datauconvensqionbactons iss sevo edited etse mmu Teese EDO DelimiterChar amp miscdata Commentsi Standard EPW Custom def format for reading EPW files in EnergyPlus Weather Converter EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 24 Auxiliary Programs SourceData EPW amp datacontrol NumRecordsToSkip 8 MaxNumRecordsToRead 8784 MissingWindDirAction RANDOM Listing 6 DEF File for EPW files Custom File Processing In normal file processing conversion from the input data elements to the EPW data elements is automatic In custom file processing there is limited flexibility in this regard For example the user may use wet bulb temperature in their inputs this will allow the weather converter to ca
313. tures in an EnergyPlus input file Idf objects for all of the temperatures in the output file shown above are included These objects are explained in detail in the section Using the Interface Surface Temperature Results in EnergyPlus Running the Basement Program EP Launch can be used to run the Basement program EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 90 Auxiliary Programs Outside Face Temperature Plane Outside Insulation Either Full or Half Figure 16 Basement Configuration A AAA ESTEE AA EAN I B ESAS m MonthlyFl MonthiyWWY MonthlyU MonthlyL MonthlyT MonthlyT MonthlyT MonthlyT MonthlyT MonthlyT MonthlyT MonthlyT oorHeatFl allHeatFlu pperWallF owerWall ZoneTem SurfWall SWallln C SurfFloor SFloorin SurWallU SurfWallU SurfWallL SurfWallL ux W m x W m 2 lux W m Flux W m Month p c c cl pperC pperin C owerC owern C 2 l 2 2 17 05 18 65 18 07 18 66 16 52 18 41 17 58 18 89 824 112 1321 92 18 21 19 18 19 26 19 48 17 87 19 02 18 55 19 34 3 17 6 79 8 09 549 18 47 193 19 42 19 59 18 21 19 18 1874 19 42 248 6 81 478 18 71 19 41 195 19 65 18 45 19 29 18 96 19 52 214 588 395 18 98 19 53 19 55 19 69 188 19 45 19 16 19 62 191 458 3 19 19 14 19 61 19 59 19 71 18 97 19 53 1931 19 68 1 75 3 91 251 19 34 197 19 62 19 74 19 23 19 65 19 46 1975 1 61 2 92 2 06 19 37 19 71 19 65 19 76 19 17 19 62 19 57 198 15 3 16 1 62 19 34 19 7 19 67 19 77 19 07 19 58 19 61 19 82 141 3 52 148 19 13 196 19 69 19 78 18 7 194 19 56 198 134 495 157 18
314. ty Ratio If you have the humidity ratio this data element can be used to derive the dew point temperature and relative humidity Dirhorrad Direct Horizontal Radiation If you have direct horizontal radiation and at least one other solar element from global horizontal radiation or diffuse horizontal radaition this data element will be used to derive the direct normal radiation Interval If your number of records per hour is gt 1 then you can designate each interval of that hour with this field Hour Of Year If you wish you can just put in the hour of the year for each record Note that if no date element is entered then the default is that the data is in hour of the year including possible number of records per hour EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 19 Auxiliary Programs Time or HH MM Time can be entered rather than hour and the units must be hh mm this is then decoded on each record to the appropriate hour Date Dates can be entered as month day and year The units field must be entered and should designate the format for the date decoding Date separator characters for this field are entered in the DateSeparator item Default date separator is and that is what is used in the table that shows the allowable units Table 11 Allowable date formats for Custom Data entries Units Format Interpretation Example mm dd yyyymm dd yym d y Month day year 12 13 2009 yyyy mm ddyy mm ddy m d Year month day 2009 12 1
315. u also press the Choose File to Update a browse window will appear at the bottom of which is a pulldown list for the Files of Type Select the Text File With List of EnergyPlus Files 1st see the section IDF Version Converter Transition File Lists for format of this 1st file option Once a file is found its version is checked and appears as the Current Version By default the latest New Version will be selected by the program you can override this by choosing a different file version as the end version The Update File button will then be able to be selected and the conversion will be done The audit from the multiple transitions will be able to be viewed once the process is complete If you are doing multiple transitions e g from V2 2 to V6 you can select the check box Create Intermediate Files and after each transition a file for the resultant version will be created and labeled Vx idf where x is an abbreviated version number The converted file becomes the new idf and the original file is saved in the original folder as original idf To delete the original file instead of saving it check the Delete Original Files checkbox EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 111 Auxiliary Programs Table 30 IDF Version Updater Output Files and Descriptions Transition Output File Name Description filename Transition audit This is the contents of what you would see on the screen if you sat and watched th
316. ual programs are included in their descriptions Technical Details of Running Energy Plus this section gives full instructions on both EP Launch and the IDF Editor as well as some more details on running EnergyPlus manually EP Compare A utility to graphically compare tabular results from multiple simulation files Weather Converter Program The Weather Converter program is stored in the EnergyPlus folder area under PreProcess and subsequently in the WeatherConverter folder To perform annual run period simulations in EnergyPlus one needs weather data Most weather data is still issued in an hour by hour hourly format though as you will see EnergyPlus and its weather converter can accept data that has a finer resolution on the data such as every 10 or 15 minutes The special weather format EPW used in EnergyPlus is a simple ascii format as is common in the rest of the inputs for EnergyPlus Background All building simulation programs employ some means of representing local climatic conditions relative to the building models For example Radiance Ward 1996 needs a description of sky conditions and illu minance values to calculate solar distribution through a window and within a space Three of the widely used energy simulation programs in the UK and US ESP r ESRU 1999 BLAST UI 1998 and DOE 2 Winkelmann et al 1993 also use weather conditions to simulate the response of a building But even after 30 years of s
317. ud amount Opaque sky cover Visibility Ceiling height Clearness monthly Undisturbed Ground temperatures monthly Present weather observation and codes rain snow X Precipitable water Aerosol optical depth Snow depth Days since last snowfall Albedo Liquid Precipitation Depth Liquid Precipitation Quantity PA DA PA o X X X pA pA X xxx ps va p X eA v KKK X P PA KKK v v X X xx X P PA pd pA pA p DA PA PI DA PA pI pi pA p lt 9X pi X Using the Weather Converter We developed a utility for the E E format to read standard weather service file types such as SAMSON and newer typical year weather files such as TMY2 WYEC2 and IWEC The utility also reads ESP r CLM format DOE 2 fmt format BLAST Ascii format files and other files The utility translates and extends typical weather data into the E E format The processor makes the calculations necessary for supplying data when data is missing and calculates the Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity values not typically currently an observed value reported by the meteorological offices through the world The utility also prepares an statistical summary of the weather data set as part of the processing An additional output format from the utility is comma delimited file that can easily be imported into a spreadsheet program such as Excel for further user perusal charting and or editing EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 8 Auxiliary
318. udefilename This command is identical to include except that the lines in the included file will not be listed in the EP MACRO echo nosilent Overrides the listing suppression of includesilent Used for debugging purposes only After nosi lent all following includesilent commands are treated as 7 include commands Example Assume the following files contain the indicated lines Main input file input1 inp External file file2 inp line la HH include file2 inp line 1b line 1c The end result of processing include inputl inp will be ine ine ine ine ine la from input1 inp 2a from 2b from 2c from 1b from ic from file2 inp file2 inp file2 inp inputi inp inputi inp line 2a line 2b line 2c External files can also contain 7 include commands as shown in the following example Main input file First external file Second external file inputl inp line la include file2 inp line 1b line 1c file2 inp line 2a line 2b include file3 inp line 2c The end result of processing 7 include inputl tmp will be ine ine ine ine ine la from input1 inp 2a from 2b from 3a from 3b from 3c from 3d from 2c from 1b from 1c from veal fa sil seal fi fa EF e2 e2 e3 e3 e3 e3 e2 inp inp inp inp inp inp inp input1 inp input1 inp EnergyPlus V
319. ue is 1 1 Field Thermal Conductivity for Gravel This field is the thermal conductivity W m K of gravel Typical value is 1 9 Field Thermal Conductivity for Wood This field is the thermal conductivity W m K of wood Typical value is 0 12 Insulation or GroundHeatTransfer Basement Insulation Object This object describes the insulation Field REXT R Value of any exterior insulation This field is the R value m2 K W of any exterior insulation Field INSFULL Flag Is the wall fully insulated This field uses true for fully insulated walls and false for insulation half way down the side wall from the grade line SurfaceProps or GroundHeatTransfer Basement SurfaceProps Object The first six fields in this object specify the parameters used in the surface heat transfer boundary condition determination They are specified for no snow and snow covered conditions EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 97 Auxiliary Programs Field ALBEDO Surface albedo for No snow conditions This field specifies the surface solar albedo for no snow conditions Solar albedo is more commonly available than the solar absorptivity The total solar energy absorbed by a horizontal surface is 1 albedo Total solar Typical value for this field is 0 16 Field ALBEDO Surface albedo for snow conditions This field specifies the surface solar albedo for snow covered conditions Solar albedo is more commonly available than the solar absorptivity The to
320. ult HeavyAndDamp N12 field Average Soil Surface Temperature required field units C type real default 0 N13 field Amplitude of Soil Surface Temperature required field units C type real minimum 0 default 0 N14 field Phase Constant of Soil Surface Temperature required field units days type real minimum 0 default 0 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 138 Auxiliary Programs N15 field Constant Term Flow Coefficient required field note A in Equation type real default 1 N16 field Temperature Term Flow Coefficient required field note B in Equation type rea default 0 N17 field Velocity Term Flow Coefficient required field note C in Equation type rea default 0 N18 field Velocity Squared Term Flow Coefficient required field note D in Equation type rea default 0 HVAC Performance Curve Fit Tool Introduction This auxiliary tool generates HVAC performance curves in EnergyPlus curve object format For each set of performance data entered Capacity and EIR performance curves are generated and these curves are generated either as a function of temperature s or flow fraction The Capacity and EIR of Cooling DX Coils as a function of temperatures require only Biquadratic curve whereas Capacity and EIR of Heating DX Coils may use Biquadratic Cubic and Quadratic curves The selection of either of these curves is dependent on availability of performance data The Capacity and EIR as a fu
321. umber of years to iterate note typical value 10 N2 field Shape Slab shape note only value 0 N3 field HBLDG Building height note typical value 0 20 units m N4 field TIN1 January Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 units C N5 field TIN2 February Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 units C N6 field TIN3 March Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 units C N7 field TIN4 April Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 units C N8 field TIN5 May Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 units C N9 field TIN6 June Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 units C N10 field TIN7 July Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 units C N11 field TIN8 August Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 Nunits C N12 field TIN9 September Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 Nunits C N13 field TIN10 October Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 Nunits C N14 field TIN11 NovemberIndoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 Nunits C N15 field TIN12 December Indoor Average temperature set point note typical value 22 Nunits C N16 field TINAmp Daily Indoor sine wave variation amplitude note typical value 0 units C N17 field ConvTol Convergence Tolerance no
322. ure with a 24 hour period sine function This was included to show the effect of something such as night setback on the face temperature Generally the effect is quite small First the results for a monthly specified constant average inside temperature The location is Minneapolis and the slab is insulated Monthly Slab Outside Face Temperatures C Perimeter Area 304 00 Core Area 1296 00 Month Average Perimeter Core Inside 1 AG Si 16 11 18 03 18 0 2 17 45 15 92 17 81 18 0 3 17 43 16 07 17 74 18 0 4 19 00 17 82 omo 20 0 5 19 24 18 23 19 48 20 0 6 19 31 18 42 19 52 20 0 ff 20 92 20 14 gba 22 0 8 DHT 20 44 21 35 22 0 9 21 22 20 45 21 40 22 0 10 2l 2l 20 26 21 44 22 0 11 19 62 18 54 19 88 20 0 12 19 35 iU Sg omm 20 0 EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 75 Auxiliary Programs The resulting heat flux is shown below The inside heat transfer coefficient and slab thermal properties are specified in the input file For this example the total thermal resistance from the inside air to the slab bottom surface was 0 27 m C W This value is controlled by the user with the inside heat transfer coefficient and slab thermal properties values in the slab program input file Month Average Perimeter Core Inside Perimeter Heat Flux W m Average Heat Flux W m 1 17 67 16 11 18 03 18 7 00 1 22 2 17 45 15 92 17 81 18 7 70 2 04 3 17 43 16 07 17 74 18 7 15 2 11 4 19 17 82 19 27 20 8 07 3 70 5 19 24 18 23 19 48 20 6 56 2 81 6 19 31 18 42 19 52 20 5
323. urface Heat Iransfer Surface Heat Transfer Sub Surface Shading Detached Fixed Surface Shading Detached Building and Surface Shading Attached e These options are saved for each file If a file has not been saved with IDF Editor yet the default is used but if a file does not specify the default values for these can also be set by using the set as default option The saved file keeps these options by using the option line with SortedOrder OriginalOrderTop OriginalOrderBottom and UseSpecialFormat e Full line comments which begin with are preserved by IDF Editor and become associated with the object immediately followin the comment line s e Endline comments which begin with are preserved by IDF Editor and are placed immediately before the object they are found in e Endline comment which being with the field name and units User provided text which follows added above the pertinent object using to begin the line p are automatic comments which IDF Editor will overwrite with 1 will be lost User comments should be Also on the File menu is the Open DataSet menu and submenu This allows you to open any input file that appears in the DataSet subdirectory and copy objects from them into another file This is required because EnergyPlus does not read the DataSet files it is up to you to include objects from them Edit Menu The Edit Menu offers options to create a new object duplicate an object and del
324. urveObjToTextFile subroutine from the macro list References AHRI 2008 ANSI AHRI Standard 210 240 2008 Standard for Performance Rating of Unitary Air Conditioning amp Air Source Heat Pump Equipment Arlington VA Air Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration Institute AHRI 2007 ANSI AHRI Standard 340 360 2007 Standard for Performance Rating of Commercial and Industrial Unitary Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Equipment Arlington VA Air Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration Institute AHRI 2003 ANSI AHRI Standard 550 590 2003 Standard for Performance Rating Of Water Chilling Packages Using The Vapor Compression Cycle Arlington VA Air Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration Institute EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 143 Auxiliary Programs Parametric Spreadsheets Several spreadsheet applications are included in the Preprocess ParametricSpreadsheets folder These in clude spreadsheets Excel for the Water Source heat pumps and Water to Air heat pumps Water to Water Heat Pump Parameter Coefficient Generator Cooling and Heating Mode This document gives brief instructions on generating the parameters coefficients for the water to water heat pump models in cooling and heating mode The Excel spreadsheets WaterWater PE Cooling xls and WaterWater PE Heating xls are used Since the spreadsheet functions are very similar for both cooling and heating modes only one instruction document is supplied The spread
325. used for a simulation along with how the output files should be named and a counter You do not need to manually create EPG files instead press the New Group button on the Group of Input Files Tab and a step by step wizard will help to create a new EPG EnergyPlus Group file The first step of the wizard is to selected the EnergyPlus input files that should be simulated as part of the group Use the boxes next to each file to select the files to be simulated The path to files shown may be changed using the path button Once the files in a certain directory are selected the next button should be pressed If additional files are desired in different directories you will get a chance to add them to the EnergyPlus group file in a later step Select one or several weather files using the second step of the wizard shown below EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 170 Auxiliary Programs Ga EP Launch m Single Input File Group of Input Files History Utilities r Group File R EnergyPlus 4 0 0Prerelease E xampleFiles M anyO ptions epg Y Browse Edit View Group Error File Simulate Group EnergyPlus 4 0 0 024 Figure 35 EP Launch Group of Input Files Tab im New Group of Simulations 3 E x Step 1 of 5 Select Input Files C SEnergyPlusSE xampleFiles Path 1Zonelncontrolled idf C Szvent idf 3zvent amp utoCalcOfwindPressureCoeffs idf 5Zone irCooled
326. ute of Water amp Atmospheric Research Ltd NIWA The New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority EECA has developed a Home Energy Rating Scheme HERS for New Zealand households based on software simulation of energy loss and demand The software requires hourly data to represent the different climates zones around New Zealand especially EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 63 Auxiliary Programs for larger population centres These climate data consist of hourly records for an artificial year created from twelve representative months Liley J Ben Hisako Shiona James Sturman David S Wratt 2007 Typical Meteorological Years for the New Zealand Home Energy Rating Scheme Prepared for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority NIWA Client Report LAU2007 02 JBL NIWA Omakau New Zealand Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers CIBSE The CIBSE in association with the UK Met Office has produced Test Reference Years and Design Summer Years for 14 UK locations for use with building energy simulation software The data sets are available in various formats including EnergyPlus ESP r These data are NOT available on the EnergyPlus web site For further details see www cibse org index cfm go publications view amp PubID 332 amp S1 y amp L1 0 amp L2 0 Real Time Data Real Time weather data is available from the EnergyPlus web site From the web site Hourly weather data from statio
327. utput EIO is a text file containing output that does not vary with time For instance location information latitude longitude time zone altitude appears on this file rdd mdd The Report variable Data Dictionary RDD is a text file listing those variables available for reporting on the ESO for this particular simulation Which variables are available for output depends on the actual simulation problem described in the IDF The Report meter Data Dictionary MDD is a text file listing those variables available for reporting on the MTR for this particular simulation Which meters are available for output depends on the actual simulation problem described in the IDF A simulation with no chiller would not permit the output of any chiller report variables The user may need to examine the RDD or MDD to find out which report variables are available in a particular simulation The RDD and MDD are written only if the following is included in the IDF file Dutput Reports VariableDictionary A variant produces the same files in a IDF ready format Dutput Reports VariableDictionary IDF dbg This is a text file containing debug output for use by EnergyPlus developers Generally developers will add debug print statements wherever in the code that that they wish There is a standard debug output that prints out conditions at all the HVAC nodes This output is triggered by placing Output DebuggingData 1 in the IDF file If Ou
328. vation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 Notes Light up to 0 25 cm per hour Moderate 0 28 to 0 76 cm per hour Heavy greater than 0 76 cm per hour 3 Occurrence of 0 1 3 9 0 Light rain squalls 1 Moderate rain squalls 3 Rain Squalls Light drizzle 4 Moderate drizzle 5 Heavy drizzle 6 Drizzle or Light freezing drizzle 7 Moderate freezing drizzle Freezing Drizzle 8 Heavy freezing drizzle 9 None if Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 Notes When drizzle or freezing drizzle occurs with other weather phenomena Light up to 0 025 cm per hour Moderate 0 025 to 0 051 cm per hour Heavy greater than 0 051 cm per hour When drizzle or freezing drizzle occurs alone Light visibility 1 km or greater Moderate visibility between 0 5 and 1 km Heavy visibility 0 5 km or less 4 Occurrence of 0 9 0 Light snow 1 Moderate snow 2 Heavy snow 3 Snow Snow Light snow pellets 4 Moderate snow pellets 5 Pellets or Ice Heavy snow pellets 6 Light ice crystals 7 Crystals Moderate ice crystals 8 Heavy ice crystals 9 None if Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 Notes Beginning in April 1963 any occurrence of ice crystals is recorded as a 7 5 Occurrence of 0 7 9 0 Light snow 1 Moderate snow showers 2 Sno
329. ve humidity and or dewpoint temperature The following three tables illustrate the names for data elements Table 8 Internal Data Element Names directly applicable to EPW Default Used by Short Name Long Name EPW Units EnergyPlus year Year N month Month Y day Day Y hour hour Y minute minute N datasource datasource N drybulb dry bulb temperature C Y dewpoint dew point temperature C Y relhum relative humidity Y atmos pressure atmospheric pressure Pa Y exthorrad extraterrestrial horizontal radiation Wh m N extdirrad extraterrestrial direct normal radiation Wh m N horirsky horizontal infrared radiation Wh m Y intensity from sky glohorrad global horizontal radiation Wh m N dirnorrad direct normal radiation Wh m Y difhorrad diffuse horizontal radiation Wh m Y glohorillum global horizontal illuminance lux N dirnorillum direct normal illuminance lux N difhorillum diffuse horizontal illuminance lux N zenlum zenith luminance lux N winddir wind direction degrees Y windspd wind speed m s Y EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 17 Auxiliary Programs Default Used by Short Name Long Name EPW Units EnergyPlus totskycvr total sky cover tenths N opaqskycvr opaque sky cover tenths N visibility visibility km N ceiling hgt ceiling height m N presweathobs present weather observation Y presweathcodes present weather codes Y precip wtr precipitable water mm N aerosol opt depth aerosol optical depth t
330. ve standard station identifiers Rather they use a climate zone designator from 1 16 This file is used to obtain the latitude longitude time zone and elevation data for these climate zones The WYEC2 File Source Code field 2 column 6 of each data record is used to determine that the file is a California compliance type file ASHRAE 2009 Yearly DesignConditions csv The three files for design conditions have roughly the same format These are the values from the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals 2009 Chapter 14 Appendix The WMO station identifier is used to determine the design condition values that apply to a source data file and thus are included in the DESIGN CONDITION header record on the EPW file produced as part of the conversion This information is also included in the statistical report file STAT produced from the weather converter utility In addition these are used to supply the information for the design day object DDY file creation Public calls to EPlusWth dll Several points of the library are made available for use with external programs In each case the parameters passed will be described along with the Visual Basic VB6 code that is used to declare them as well as Fortran 90 style Interface statements to the same calls The library is placed in the same folder with the weather converter utility you may need to copy it to your program s folder if you choose to add external calls from your program to it Setu
331. ventilation into buildings Enthalpy represents the total heat content of air the sum of its sensible and latent energies Cooling loads can be easily calculated knowing the conditions of both the outdoor ambient and the building s interior air K ppen Climate Classification Various attempts have been made to classify the climates of the earth into climatic regions One notable yet ancient and misguided example is that of Aristotle s Temperate Torrid and Frigid Zones However the 20th century classification developed by German climatologist and amateur botanist Wladimir K ppen 1846 1940 continues to be the authoritative map of the world climates in use today Introduced in 1928 as a wall map co authored with student Rudolph Geiger the K ppen system of classifi cation map was updated and modified by K ppen until his death Since that time it has been modified by several geographers The modified K ppen Climate Classification System is the most widely used system for classifying the world s climates Its categories are based on the annual and monthly averages of temperature and precipitation The K ppen system recognizes six major climatic types each type is designated by a capital letter In addition to the major climate types each category is further sub divided into sub categories based on temperature and precipitation There are only 24 sub categories possible making the general schemes quite easy to comprehend For examp
332. w 3zvent_1 2004 Aug 02 14 20 53 5Zone amp irCooled idf 52one irCooled_1 2004 4ug 02 14 21 12 5ZoneAirCooled idf LUS amp CO Boulder TMY2 epw amp Zone amp irCooled 1 2004 4ug 02 14 21 31 5ZoneAirCooled idf USA _CO_Boulder_TMY2 epw amp Zone amp irCooled 1 2004 Aug 02 14 21 49 5Zone amp irCooled idf L S amp CO Boulder TMY2 epw amp Zone amp irCooled 1 2004 Aug 02 14 22 08 5Zone amp irCooled idf L S amp CO Boulder TMY2 epw amp Zone amp irCooled 1 2004 Aug 02 14 22 26 5ZoneAirCooled idf LIS amp CO Boulder TMY2 epw amp Zone amp irCooled 1 2004 Aug 02 14 22 38 5Zoneuto idf amp Zone amp uto 1 2004 Aug 02 15 38 38 LgOffvAV idf USA_IL_Chicago OHare_TMY2 epw LgOffvAV View File EnergyPlus 1 2 0 021 Exit H A Figure 40 EP Launch History Tab You can expand the level of detail by clicking on the plus signs or double clicking on the entry The detail shown includes the names of all the input and output files associated with that simulation along with the message summary of the warnings and errors generated It is possible that a file may be shown that no longer exists The View Files button will display the selected file using a spreadsheet text editor DXF file viewer SVG file viewer or HTML web browser When groups of simulations are performed using the Group of Input File tab and User Defined Locations are used for the output files the history view is the only way to access those fil
333. w Showers Heavy snow showers 3 Light snow squall 4 Snow Squalls or Moderate snow squall 5 Heavy snow squall 6 Snow Grains Light snow grains 7 Moderate snow grains 9 None if Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 6 Occurrence of 0 2 4 9 0 Light ice pellet showers 1 Moderate ice pellet Sleet Sleet Showers or Hail EnergyPlus Version 8 2 showers 2 Heavy ice pellet showers 4 Hail 9 None if Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 Notes Prior to April 1970 ice pellets were coded as sleet Beginning in April 1970 sleet and small hail were redefined as ice pellets and are coded as 0 1 or 2 Page 52 Auxiliary Programs Column Position Element Possible in Field Description Values Definition T Occurrence of 0 9 0 Fog 1 Ice fog 2 Ground fog 3 Blowing dust Fog Blowing 4 Blowing sand 5 Heavy fog 6 Glaze beginning Dust or Blowing 1984 7 Heavy ice fog beginning 1984 8 Heavy Sand ground fog beginning 1984 9 None if Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 Notes These values recorded only when visibility is less than 11 km 8 Occurrence of 0 7 9 0 Smoke 1 Haze 2 Smoke and haze 3 Dust 4 Smoke Haze Blowing snow 5 Blowing spray 6 Dust storm Smoke and Ha
334. w but the Transition program s can do the fastest job of making the conversions An ObjectStatus spreadsheet is also included for those who want the details of each object s change IDF Version Updater The transition programs have been written as console applications similar to EnergyPlus However that may not be the easiest for users who want to transition several versions or several files at one time Thus the IDF Version Updater GUI application was created The IDF Version Updater lives in the folder with the multiple transition programs see Error Reference source not found Note that this application is also available from the EP Launch Utilities tab utility IDFVersionUpdater If you need to convert files from older than V6 0 the transition program set will need to be downloaded before use Once IDF Version Updater is selected from the Utilities pulldown list click on the Run IDF Version Updater box and the single window shown below appears E4 IDF Version Updater Choose File to Update C Wer2 0 0 025 InputFiles 1 ZoneEvapCooler idf Current Version New Version 2 0 0 gt 6 0 0 Y Delete Original Files L Figure 23 Transition GUI screen Using the program is quite simple As the window indicates you press Choose File to Update to select a file or list of files see IDF Version Converter Transition File Lists to convert If doing multiple transitions using a transition file list yo
335. was to determine one or more possible solar models to use in the weather conversion creation process One model seemed better overall with the usual given data from the sources than others The model termed Zhang Huang has been used in a variety of locations and data creations including the upcoming IWEC2 data The model uses a simplistic approach of recent drybulb temperatures sky cover global solar constant and solar position This model is only used when all solar values are missing from the incoming data When global radiation is available then a different model Perez split is used to split the global into direct normal and diffuse horizontal values Results of course can vary depending on locations For example in Brisbane AUS comparing the solar creation with the original IWEC data looks very good Of course there are other locations that don t compare quite as well EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 25 Auxiliary Programs E D ZI AAA ELSE anata ANARAN NAARAS HARE 8B ZN E ANE Hun nin ua Pe RAMAN GABOR Ras Figure 4 Solar radiation comparison IWEC vs Weather Solar Model Brisbane AUS EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 26 Auxiliary Programs r B unu nud EEE EE fS x EANG B V E i p A D cue B B N Eo i Bud E SS ERAS E ETE UE E AN Ea E AA A 7 gt Edo TAN Bt AN AV Ala E AN Figure 5 Comparison of IWEC vs Weather program Solar Model
336. wind to guest and change direction It is increasingly the case that design questions touch on such issues In a research context the advent of tools such as LabVIEW National Instruments Corporation 1999 have made it possible for increasing numbers of researchers to acquire and process test cell data The increasing use of building energy management systems BEMS has also provided high frequency information from which simulation could be used as a predictive tool for future control strategies Other issues of control particularly of advanced daylighting control require sub hourly illumination data to ensure that possible control regimes are tested under realistic conditions Janak 1997 observed that the differences between 5 minute and hourly illumination data could result in prediction variations approaching 4096 Thus far projects that mix empirical and simulation based work have had to store and access such data via temporal database facilities ESRU 1999 As the number of high quality datasets increases so does the need to encapsulate such information in a form that can be broadly distributed The simulation community must also consider the uncertainty in high frequency performance predictions that are based on boundary conditions that have been sampled at one or two magnitudes less temporal resolution The simulation community must also consider practitioner demands and issues of quality assurance Someone who is not a native of Copenhagen m
337. wn previously and the dxf file generates the wire frame drawing shown in Figure 26 a Pa P T d io d QU 5 hs IT bs e d M la d y PE 2 ism P S NS a a N E P d E Pag 3 t m d E ts pm a Ps m Mis S pe a im Ne i P d T zt Ku En a E a nw i CN bo raf a P dio xN E Y ed Je SL gt a N M nhu Me ec ER p wr i S j SL EM Pd P ee E A M bee T d n d E EN A V NN P m E E Se P d P 2 NS P d P d ri pt T E A M V a A E i S A EM P i e M Pai a Figure 20 DXF Format of Example Zone The input file and the output files produced by View3D are read into the interface spreadsheet and appear on new worksheets Figure 27 shows the lower corner of the interface sheet with the additional sheet tabs I ZeneSheet j VerticeszZoneSheet ViewJDLog UservFObject ff Results f Figure 21 Files brought into the Interface Workbook The results file is named with the name in cell D13 with an extension of out This file is shown below EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 109 Auxiliary Programs View3D 3 20 10 6 400 480 400 480 3000 3000 0 000000 0 078244 0 029324 0 078217 0 407109 0 407106 0 065204 0 000000 0 065204 0 044282 0 412652 0 412659 0 029324 0 078245 0 000000 0 078217 0 407110 0 407105 0 065181 0 044282 0 065181 0 000000 0 412679 0 412677 0 054281 0 066024 0 054281 0 066029 0 000000 0 759385 0 054281 0 066025 0 054281 0 066028 0 759385 0 000000 0 999 0 999 0 999 0 999
338. wse Button The input file can be opened using a text editor and for certain utilities the IDF Editor If a weather file is needed for a utility it can also be selected For other utilities no weather file is needed and that portion of the screen is not shown The appropriate output files can be opened by the Open button near the bottom of the screen To run the utility use the Run button in the lower left corner of the screen above the Exit button In addition for each utility a brief description of the function of the utility is shown in the about box but much more information is available in the AuxiliaryPrograms documentation Caveats Remember to save changes made in the editor before you run another simulation The simulation cannot write new results to open files which are locked by another application You will need to close the spreadsheet program that views the resulting CSV files prior to another simulation and you may need to close the text editor windows also depending on your editor EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 175 Auxiliary Programs The EPL RUN BAT batch file is used to run EnergyPlus from the EP Launch program It can be edited with care if other postprocessors or preprocessors are to be used When things go wrong Though EnergyPlus has had several releases including beta releases prior to initial release there still may be problems when input files meet with EnergyPlus If you are using EP Laun
339. xtension is listed below The contents along with examples are discussed in the Output Details document By pressing the Text Output Files button a text editor will open each of the text output files Up to 29 files will open if they exist Selecting Single File from the View menu displays a menu of all available output files from which any file can be opened individually Each file may also be opened with an associated function key The output files and function key shortcuts are listed below Variable tabulated results in comma tab or space delimited format generated by the ReadVarsESO postprocessor F4 ESO raw report variable output F5 RDD list of output variables available from the run F6 MDD list of output meters available from the run Shift Ctrl F3 EIO additional EnergyPlus results F7 ERR list of errors and warnings F8 BND HVAC system node and component connection details F9 MTR raw report meter output F11 MTD list of meter component variables F12 METER File tabulated meter report in comma tab or space delimited format generated by the ReadVarsESO postprocessor Ctrl F4 ZSZ zone sizing details in comma tab or space delimited format Ctrl F5 SSZ system sizing details in comma tab or space delimited format Ctrl F6 AUDIT input file echo with input processor errors and warnings Ctrl F8 SLN output from report surfaces lines Ctrl F9 DBG ou
340. y arguments to the batch file with embedded blanks it s better practice not to More extensive information about the intricacies of EnergyPlus execution is given in the next parts of this section As installed the RunEPlus is ready to run the sample files that are included If you wish to create and run other files you may wish to modify the batch file to your own preferences See RunEPlus details later in this document for parts of the batch file that you will need to modify Running EnergyPlus by Hand EnergyPlus is compiled as a 32 bit console application on Windows Windows 98 Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows ME operating systems commonly run on the Intel or compatible processing chips aka WinTel machines To run the program bring up the command prompt and cd to the directory containing the executable Assume that the executable is called EnergyPlus exe In the same directory EnergyPlus expects in idf the input data file Energy idd the data dictionary file in epw the weather file needed only if there is a RunPeriod in the input and optionally Energy ini the initialization file Typing EnergyPlus and hitting the Enter key will execute the program EnergyPlus will write messages to the command window as it runs A simulation with two design days and one run period looks like EnergyPlus Starting EnergyPlus Version 1 3 Warming up Initializing Response Factors Calculating CTFs for EXTWALL80 Construction 1
341. y run and know for sure that no errors occurred EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 92 Auxiliary Programs Basement Program Output Files The following output files are created by the Basement program and saved in the output file path specified in the RunBasement bat file audit Audit file Input errors are reported here as well as other information about the progress of the program out Summary of inputs location data and grid coordinates csv Monthly temperatures and fluxes for each surface idf the EPObjects txt file ready to be included in an EnergyPlus input file idf The Basement idd The basement idd objects and fields are shown below These objects also appear in the main Energy IDD file with the prefix GroundHeat Transfer Basement Basement foundation heat transfer module Input Data Dictionary file Created August 18 2000 Written by Edward Clements Modified for EnergyPlus Auxiliary Application by C 0 Pedersen 10 04 S Description format FORTRAN var description units typ values imParameters N1 field F Multiplier for the ADI solution note O F 1 0 note typically 0 1 0 5 for high k soil N2 field IYRS Maximum number of yearly iterations note typically 15 30 MatlProps N1 field NMAT Number of materials in this domain maximum 6 N2 field Density for Foundation Wall note typical value 2243 units kg m3 N3 field density for Floor Slab note typi
342. yPlus Version 8 2 Page 102 Auxiliary Programs ZFACE memo memo N27 N28 N29 N30 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40 N41 N42 N43 N44 This is only needed when using manual gridding not recommended ZFACE Z Direction cell face coordinates m N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 N10 N11 N12 N13 N14 N15 N16 N17 N18 N19 N20 N21 N22 N23 N24 N25 N26 N27 N28 N29 N30 N31 N32 N33 N34 N35 N36 N37 N38 N39 N40 Using the Interface Surface Temperature Results in EnergyPlus If the objects are placed in the normal EnergyPlus input IDF file using the GroundHeatTransfer Basement prefix then the values resulting from the Basement preprocessor will be automatically included in the simulation at run time The surfaces can reference these values using Outside Boundary Conditions of GroundBasementPreprocessorAverage Wall GroundBasementPreprocessor AverageFloor GroundBasementPreprocessorUpperWall GroundBasementPreprocessorLower Wall The objects that support this include BuildingSurface Detailed Wall Detailed RoofCeiling Detailed Floor Detailed The monthly results from the basement program are used with the SurfaceProperty OtherSideCoefficients object in EnergyPlus The idd corresponding to that object is shown below The two applicable fields are N2 and A2 N2 should have the value 1 0 It will be modified by a schedule that is named in A2 and that temperature will be used
343. ypical value 15 0 units m N4 field ZCLEARANCE Distance from bottom of slab to domain bottom note typical value 15 0 units m Average Slab Outside Temp With Different Slab thicknesses PJ Gn RJ a un A 10 Dutside Surface Temp C Figure 15 Graph of Slab Outside Temperature vs Slab Thickness The EquivSlab object and the EquivAutoGrid Objects that follow have been replaced by the EquivalentSlab object above They are included in the idd so that old idf files can still be read EquivSlab Object Obsolete This object provides the basic information for running a model that uses the area over perimeter ratio of the slab to determine the size of an equivalent rectangular slab Field APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab This field specifies the area over perimeter ratio of the slab in meters EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 87 Auxiliary Programs Field EquivSizing This field value should be TRUE This means that the program will determine the dimensions of the equivalent slab that satisfactorily models the A P ratio The object is shown below EquivSlab memo Using an equivalent slab allows non rectangular shapes to be modeled accurately memo The simulation default should be EquivSizing True N1 field APRatio The area to perimeter ratio for this slab units m A1 field EquivSizing note Flag Will the dimensions of an equivalent slab note be calculated TRUE or will the dimensions be i
344. ypically acquisition of weather data has been a user s burden Though this will remain the case in many instances for EnergyPlus users the EnergyPlus team has been successful in making a wealth of US Canadian and International data available to our users To summarize the weather data for 2092 locations is available at the EnergyPlus web site www energyplus gov e The details are shown in Table 18 Summary of Downloadable Weather Data by Type This data has been selected with the energy simulation user in mind All the data as well as the statistical reports described later in this document are downloadable for individual locations Table 1 Comparison of E E with ESP r DOE 2 BLAST Weather Data Formats Data Element DOE 2 BLAST ESP r E E Location name latitude longitude elevation time zone X X X X Data source X Commentary X X Design conditions X EnergyPlus Version 8 2 Page 7 Auxiliary Programs Data Element DOE 2 BLAST ESP r E E Typical extreme periods X X Data periods X Holiday Daylight Saving Solar Angles Equation of Time Hours Degree Days Year Month Day Hour Minute Data source and uncertainty flags Dry bulb temperature Wet bulb temperature Dew point temperature Atmospheric station pressure Humidity ratio Relative humidity Enthalpy Density Wind Speed Wind Direction Infrared Sky Temperature Solar Radiation global normal diffuse Tluminance global normal diffuse Sky cover clo
345. ze beginning 1984 7 Volcanic ash 9 None if Blowing Snow Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else Blowing Spray or unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element Dust equals 9 Notes These values recorded only when visibility is less than 11 km 9 Occurrence of Ice 0 2 9 0 Light ice pellets 1 Moderate ice pellets 2 Pellets Heavy ice pellets 9 None if Observation Indicator element equals 0 or else unknown or missing if Observation Indicator element equals 9 For example a Present Weather Observation previous field of 0 and a Present Weather Codes field of 929999999 notes that there is heavy rain for this data period usually hourly but depends on the number of intervals per hour field in the Data Periods record Field Precipitable Water This is the value for Precipitable Water in mm This is not rain rain is inferred from the PresWeathObs field but a better result is from the Liquid Precipitation Depth field It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations primarily due to the unreliability of the reporting of this value Missing value is 999 Field Aerosol Optical Depth This is the value for Aerosol Optical Depth in thousandths It is not currently used in EnergyPlus calculations Missing value is 999 Field Snow Depth This is the value for Snow Depth in cm This field is used to tell when snow is on the ground and thus the ground reflectance may change Missing value is 999 Field Day

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