Dear all,
Does anyone of you know a software program which I can use to calculate the energy needs of a building (installed power) at an early stage (design). With the usual programs like EnergyPlus or Trnsys you need to insert a lot of parameters to get the information, parameters which just aren?t allways available in the design stage.
The calculations don?t have to be very precise, I?m looking for a tool which can give an acceptable result, so we can give our customer an idea of how much power is needed for a certain building.
Greatfully,
Jens Wagemakers
Bentley Systems' AECOsim Energy Simulator has a conceptual mode - about 10 inputs (mostly from drop-down boxes), draw the outline of the footprint, select from a dozen preconfigured HVAC system (drag-and-drop components, all 90.1 required baseline and budget systems), and simulate. And it uses EnergyPlus. Once your conceptual model is ready, you can modify all the default parameters.
Free, 30-day trial available from: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/AECOsim+Energy+Simulator/
Hello,
If by energy need you are referring to energy consumption (Wh), I would suggest to go with RETScreen.
If you are referring to cooling/heating loads (W) try Design Builder.
Downside is that you can't get block load for entire building. (Maybe this issue is resolved with newer version).
HAP can also do the job.
Cheers,Sasa Pantic
--------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] Energy needs at an early design stage
To: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2013, 12:52 PM
Bentley
Systems? AECOsim Energy Simulator has a conceptual
mode ? about 10 inputs (mostly from drop-down boxes),
draw the outline of the footprint, select from
a dozen preconfigured HVAC system (drag-and-drop
components, all 90.1 required baseline and budget systems),
and simulate.? And it uses EnergyPlus.? Once your
conceptual model is ready, you can modify all the default
parameters.
?
Free, 30-day trial
available from:?
http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/AECOsim+Energy+Simulator/
?
?
From:
bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org]
On Behalf Of Wagemakers, Jens (2034464)
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 6:23 AM
To: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Bldg-sim] [Spam:*****] Energy needs at an
early design stage
?
Dear all,
Does anyone of you know a software
program which I can use to calculate the energy needs of a
building (installed power) at an early stage (design).
With the usual programs like EnergyPlus or Trnsys you need
to insert a lot of parameters to get the information,
parameters which? just aren?t allways available
in the design stage.
The calculations don?t have to be very precise,
I?m looking for a tool which can give an acceptable
result, so we can give our customer an idea of how much
power is needed for a certain building.
?
Greatfully,
Jens Wagemakers
Another option to consider, if you are already familiar with Sketchup, is the free IES-VE Ware plugin. Similar in function to what's been described for AECOSim, but from my experience I'll caution you WILL want to plan on time to create the model from scratch. Every effort I've made to re-utilize a model constructed by others for other purposes (aesthetic renders and such) has led me to scrapping the effort.
NICK CATON, P.E.
Hi Jens,
I would support Sasa's recommendation to consider DesignBuilder for the application you have suggested, adding that you can easily do both loads calculations and simulations to determine power and energy consumption from the various energy systems in the building such as HVAC, lighting and equipment. You can create the building geometry and define internal gains, HVAC (via simplified schematic drag-and-drop or menu options) etc. quickly and easily for early-stage analysis (there are many free online tutorials showing how to do this), and then develop the complexity of it as your design matures.
Regards,
Dave
Some of you may know that I use EnergyPro for this sort of thing. You
can build a very simple building if you want to. A box. Window area.
Internal people and lighting. If it is multi-story you can multiply the
floors, just like EQuest and the rest.
I suppose the most important thing is the weather file, and EnergyPro
has many to choose from, and everywhere in California where I work. For
me, in California, it is the obvious choice.
Robert Wichert P.Eng. LEED AP BD&C
In addition to being able to do EnergyPlus simulation during conceptual design using AECOsim Energy Simulator , users can also do ASHRAE heating and cooling load calculations and look at ASHRAE Standards 90.1 and 62.1 prescriptive and whole-building energy compliance (90.1 ECB and PRM (App G).
To see the conceptual modeling capabilities, it starts about 6:30 mins into this video: http://youtu.be/ZFuKIISoVhk
All,
This has been a great thread. My experience has been that the early stage
models for building orientation and envelope optimization are not of much
use, other than the insight gained from the exercise, when you move from
that phase of the project to system sizing and equipment selection during
the design phase, whether your are working with a manual input workflow
into a simulation tool or trying to automate the input through Sketchup,
Revit, Bentley, ArchiCAD, etc. Load calculations, equipment sizing, air
distribution system device and distribution system design and selection
pretty much demand room-by-room analysis. Its hard to take conceptual
models, exterior surface area models, massing and "shoe-box" models and
grow them into room-by-room models using the same original input files.
I'm very interested in what you all have to say about this process and
does any of these tools make the transition from concept to full blown
design any less painfull?
Dennis
I agree with Dennis. Typically the design evolves so much between the need for conceptual modeling and the more discrete system sizing modeling, I end up building a new model. With that in mind, I still think the eQuest wizards are the easiest and quickest way to run conceptual model options. Then I move to IES VE for my more detailed modeling.
Cory Duggin, EI
For very simple and fast schematic and concetual performance analysis I
recomend Project Vasari, which is free and specially designed for energy
analysis in early stages.
Its simulation engine is DOE 2, and you can export equest and e+ input
files for later more detailed analysis. Another usefull caracteristic is
automated results representation and cloud parametric analysis of 50 design
alternatives every time you simulate, determining the impact on energy of
the different parameters compared the original design.
Hope it helps
Regards, Santiago.
need for conceptual modeling and the more discrete system sizing modeling,
I end up building a new model. With that in mind, I still think the eQuest
wizards are the easiest and quickest way to run conceptual model options.
Then I move to IES VE for my more detailed modeling.
Santiago Velez
I agree too. Models that can change as the design evolve are a huge challenge.
In presentations I give on challenges of doing energy simulation, I describe a corporate HQ project that I worked on (a LONG time ago). We started in predesign, looking shape - a very long linear building that we rotated and did a number of simulations on shape. By schematic design the building had changed to L-shaped... more simulations... When we got to conceptual design that become an H. In design development, the owner decided to incorporate a 50 kW data center. By the end of construction documents, the building was X-shaped with a central atrium... Keeping up with these changes throughout design is a real challenge. About all that stays the same are your space types, the location, and maybe some other settings.