BEopt(TM) Software for Building Energy Optimization: Features and Capabilities

Christensen, C.; Anderson, R.; Horowitz, Scott; Courtney, A.; Spencer, Joel

doi:10.2172/891598

Cited by 90 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 1 publication

(1 reference statement)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…). These loads were calculated using BEoptE+ 1.1 (Christensen et al, 2006). Table A lists the thermal characteristics of the reference house, which are found in high performance homes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Air Mixing and Thermal Comfort From High Sidewall Supply Air Jets

Ridouane¹

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

NOTICEThis report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. AcknowledgmentsThe author thanks Ren Anderson for his guidance and for his valuable contributions to this report.iv Executive SummaryEffective mixing of conditioned air with room air is an essential factor for providing uniform comfort in homes. The higher the supply air flow rates, the easier it is to reach good mixing within the space. In high performance homes, however, the flow rates required to meet the small remaining thermal loads may not be large enough to maintain uniform mixing in the space.The objective of this study is to evaluate operating conditions required to maintain uniform mixing, within high performance homes, under both heating and cooling conditions. This can be achieved by creating proper combination of temperature and air motion in the occupied zone of the conditioned space. Lack of uniform conditions in the space or excessive fluctuation of conditions produces discomfort. Discomfort can be caused by excessive air motion (draft), excessive room air temperature variations, or failure to deliver or distribute air according to load requirements.To address this question we used computational fluid dynamics modeling to evaluate the performance of high sidewall air supply for residential applications in heating and cooling modes. Parameters that were varied in the study include the supply velocity, supply temperature, and inlet dimensions. The model provided high resolution velocity and temperature distributions in the room, which were used to determine the effective draft temperature. The latter is then used to calculate the Air Diffusion Performance Index (ADPI). This parameter was used to evaluate the air distribution and thermal comfort in the occupied zone. ADPI is the percentage of locations where the effective draft temperature and air speed meet comfort specifications. The higher the ADPI value is, the more comfortable the space will be for most occupants.The results provide information to guide the selection of high sidewall air supply inlets to maintain proper room mixing for heating and cooling of high performance homes. It is demonstrated that these systems can achieve good mixing and provide acceptable comfort levels....

show abstract

“…). These loads were calculated using BEoptE+ 1.1 (Christensen et al, 2006). Table A lists the thermal characteristics of the reference house, which are found in high performance homes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Air Mixing and Thermal Comfort From High Sidewall Supply Air Jets

Ridouane¹

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The software allows the user to select discrete options for various building variables regarding building envelope and HVAC systems and calculates energy savings with respect to a user-defined reference case or a climatespecific Building America Benchmark [158,159]. Regarding energy simulation, BEopt™ can use as simulation engine either DOE-2 [160] or TRNSYS [161] and the optimisation is executed by a sequential search technique in order to find the most cost effective combination of energy efficient measures and photovoltaic systems [8]. The software rapidly provides the user a design space (or problem space); however the proposed design space and the selectable objective functions are limited.…”

Section: Beopt™mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The building geometry, envelope and many building systems interact, thus requiring optimizing the combination of the building and systems rather than merely the systems on an individual level [5]. One promising solution is to use automated mathematical building performance optimisation (BPO) paired with building performance simulation (BPS) as a means to evaluating many different design options and obtain the optimal or near optimal (e.g., lowest life-cycle cost, lowest capital cost, highest thermal comfort) while achieving fixed objectives (e.g., net zero energy) [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing gaps and needs for integrating building performance optimization tools in net zero energy buildings design

Attia

Hamdy

O’Brien³

et al. 2013

Energy and Buildings

357

192

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper summarizes a study undertaken to reveal potential challenges and opportunities for integrating optimisation tools in Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) Design. The paper reviews current trends in simulationbased Building Performance Optimisation (BPO) and outlines major criteria for optimisation tools selection and evaluation. This is based on analyzing user's needs for tools capabilities and requirement specifications. The review is carried out by means of a literature review of 165 publications and interviews with 28 optimisation experts. The findings are based on an inter-group comparison between experts. The aim is to assess the gaps and needs for integrating BPO tools in NZEB Design. The findings indicate existing limitations including model uncertainty, computation time, difficulty of use and steep learning curve. Some future directions anticipated or needed for improvement of current tools are presented.

show abstract

“…An important reason for this is that the capability to morph models along flexibly specifiable paths of modification is difficult to obtain from the combination constituted by parametric exploration tools and building simulation tools: today's state-of-the-art tools for parametric analysis, both building-specific (Mourshed et al 2003, Christensen 2006, Caldas 2008, Zhang 2012, Palonen et al 2013, Ellis et al 2006, Attia et al 2012) and multi-purpose (Adams et al 2011, Wetter 2000a, require a more or less explicit description of all the "actions" to be performed on models, which may be long and difficult if the actions are complex and intertwined.…”

Section: Search In Building Designmentioning

confidence: 99%