Chris and All,

The idea behind SIMEB development (www.simeb.ca) is to provide a free tool that allow a fast DOE2.1, DOE2.2 and EnergyPlus model creation, with an emphasis on existing building : assisted calibration tool, weather data access and clustering analysis.

Here are new features that will be available soon on our site :

? All the documentations (including examples) will be provided in English. We are working on video tutorial also

? A web-based application will allow creating SIMEB weather file (*.swdf) by uploading the EnergyPlus (*.epw) or DOE2 (*.bin) files provided by the user.

? New version of SIMEB with migration from EnergyPlusV.5 to EnergyPlus V7.1

Thanks Chris for all the good words about SIMEB.

Comments like that help us to push the development.

Simon Sansregret, ing., M. Sc. A.

Researcher

Hydro-Qu?bec Research Institute
+ Laboratoire des Technologies de l'?nergie (LTE)
600, Avenue de la Montagne
Shawinigan, (Qu?bec), Canada
G9N 7N5

' interne (HQ) : 274-1555

' externe : 819-539-1400 (poste 1555)
: sansregret.simon at lte.ireq.ca

De : bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org [mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] De la part de Chris Balbach
Envoy? : 29 juin 2012 14:29
? : Joe Huang; EnergyPlus_Support at yahoogroups.com
Cc : bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Objet : Re: [Bldg-sim] [EnergyPlus_Support] Food for thought....

All:

On a related note - Thanks to Brian Fountain, a very intriguing (free) piece of energy simulation software called Sim-EB (available here: https://www.simeb.ca/) which focuses on modeling existing commercial buildings recently came to my attention. While quite powerful, the Sim-EB software provides a number of unique features that I think are appropriate to this discussion:

1) Given 'monthly' utility consumption and demand, and user-defined input parameter constraints, Sim-EB provides an interface for supporting 'auto-calibration' of DOE2.1e models.

2) Given user defined building descriptions of elements common across the engines, (form, fabric, HVAC, controls, etc), provides a means for using either DOE2.1e, DOE2.2 or EnergyPlus to perform calculaitons

3) Allows for easy import of user edited .inp files or .idf into the Sim-EB software. These files could have been created elsewhere, and just use Sim-EB for calibration or analysis, results review, etc.

4) Has a user website (https://www.simeb.ca:8443/index_fr.jsp,) which automatically creates and emails to users a user defined hourly 'AMY' model files (for Quebec related cities) to support model calibration.

5) Give a flexible, uniform data series (short term data logger data, 15 minute energy data, etc.), Sim-EB provides a flexible clustering tool for observing 'day-type load profiles' from within a larger data set. One can cluster model output as well, as Sim-EB provides a good visualization tool for comparing (day-type load profile) clusters of model output to clusters of metered data.

#2) lets people see, even for a shoebox model, the differences in the loads/systems/plants between DOE2.1, DOE2.2 and EPlus calculation methodologies. Of course, there are a great deal of 'switches' between the three different simulation engines that the software automatically sets, but one can export the input files and study the switch settings if they need to.

#5) above supports a case of real field data informing model input, i.e. the generation of hourly schedules given actual, real data!

,

This software was created and is distributed by the good folks at Hydro Quebec. As such, it supports both English and Metric units and the menu trees can be switched between French and English (but the help is in French only). I've use the Google translator tool and the example files to learn how to use the tool successfully. There are great pdf reports distributed along with the software which describe the clustering algorithms, the auto-calibration routines, etc.

Finally - if one renames the Sim-Eb .swdf file format weather files with a .zip extension, you can see how to replace them with non-Canadian files. It's a bit of a pain, but possible.

While it is certainly no panacea, I personally think this tool is a demonstration of how simulation software could be used to 'marry' simulation input/output with field data collection to provide 'better' calibrated simulations for examining retrofit potential. Recognizing the 'perfect is not the enemy of the good', this software, IMHO, forms a good compromise towards using energy models to create actionable results.

All the Best,

Chris Balbach, PE, CEM, CMVP, BEAP, BESA, BEMP