State-of-the-Art Review Whole Building, Building Envelope, and HVAC Component and System Simulation and Design Tools

Technical Report · Fri Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2002

OSTI ID:795581

Jacobs, P ^[1]; Henderson, H

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1. ARI

It has been well documented that the HVAC equipment and systems in commercial office buildings are among the highest consumers of electricity across the United States. Substantial reductions in energy use could be accomplished along with improved occupant comfort levels if buildings were constructed as an optimized entity rather than as the sum of separately designed and separately optimized components. Accomplishment of this goal requires a computerized tool that can characterize and assess the potential energy efficiency of new integration concepts for buildings and HVAC systems. Although numerous tools are available to aid early design decisions, conduct building energy analysis, simulate equipment and system performance, and design more efficient HVAC systems, there is no means to conduct an ''integrated'' assessment of how well proposed building systems and the elements of building systems will perform. The 21st Century Research Program of the Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Technology Institute has taken the first step toward gaining such a needed analysis tool. A thorough investigation and evaluation has documented the capabilities of currently available tools for both whole building simulation and design as well as for HVAC system and equipment simulation and design. This investigation was conducted under two separate research projects contracted to Architectural Energy Corporation, Boulder, Colorado, and CDH Energy Corporation, Cazenovia, New York. A literature and software review identified the important design practice issues related to computer use in building design, software availability, and simulation model capabilities. Top-level software providers and their customers were surveyed to assess actual use of whole building design methods and modeling tools. Design professionals quantitatively estimated time constraints and tool use; satisfaction with these practices; and priority for new software research and development. A list and critique of the available software tools is provided along with an editorial assessment and recommendations on tool enhancements needed to answer unmet needs of the various designers. Information from this report will help software developers improve the available building design tools. With improved tools, architects and professional engineers will be positioned to design buildings with fully integrated elements that will achieve increased energy savings and occupant comport.

• Research Organization: Architectural Energy Corporation, Boulder, CO (US); CDH Energy Corp., Cazenovia, NY (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: FC05-99OR22674
• OSTI ID: 795581
• Report Number(s): DOEOR22674/ARTI-21CR/605-30010-30020-01
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
AIR CONDITIONING
AIR HANDLER
BUILDING ENVELOPE
BUILDING SYSTEMS
COIL
COMPONENT
COMPUTER SIMULATION
COMPUTERS
CONDENSER
DATA EXCHANGE
DESIGN
DESIGN BUILD
DESIGN SOFTWARE
DOE-2
ENERGY ANALYSIS
ENERGY CALCULATION
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
ENERGY-10
ENERGYPLUS
ENGINEERS
EQUIPMENT
FAN
HEAT EXCHANGER
HOURLY SIMULATION
HVAC
HVAC AND LIGHTING
HVAC SYSTEMS
INSTITUTIONAL BARRIER
INTERACTIVE
LOAD CALCULATION
MARKET BARRIER
MODEL
OFFICE BUILDINGS
OPTIMIZED ENTITY
PEAK LOAD
POTENTIAL ENERGY
REFRIGERATION
RELATIONSHIP
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SIMULATION
SOFTWARE INTEROPERABILITY
STRUCTURE AND BUILDING SYSTEMS
SYSTEM
SYSTEM INTEGRATION
SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
TOOL
TOOL DEVELOPMENT
TRACE
WHOLE BUILDING