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Summary: SOLAR MODELLING OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
Robert Amor, Michael Donn and Ian van der Werff
Energy Research Group,
School of Architecture,
Victoria University of Wellington
P.O. Box 600,
Wellington, New Zealand
ABSTRACT
A number of computer programs have been developed over the last 20 years that
are capable of modelling the thermal response of buildings. There have been two
major obstacles precluding these programs from becoming commonly used by
practitioners when designing buildings. Firstly, The high cost of the mainframe
computer that was required to run the program. Secondly, The data models required
by these programs can be quite complex, and very difficult for the designer to
master. New Zealand has also faced an additional obstacle in the lack of
comprehensive weather data files (containing the information required by the
programs).
With the advent of increasingly more powerful personal computers, DOE2 and SUNCODE
have been adapted to run on these cheaper computers. The Ministry of Energy
sponsored this project, that has seen the development of "standard" data models
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