Building Energy Analysis Programs
Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs consist of Loads, Systems, Plant, and Economic sub-programs. They are used by engineers and architects in the design and analysis of energy efficient building envelopes, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning, electrical and other service systems. The historical development of energy analysis programs is presented, the methodologies used in various programs are compared, and areas for future improvements are discussed.
An Enhanced Model for combined heat and air infiltration energy simulation
The need for efficient, sustainable, and planned utilization of resources is ever more critical. Several building energy analysis tools have been developed to assess energy demands and lifecycle energy costs in buildings. Such analyses are essential for an efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning design that overcomes the pitfalls of an under/over-designed system. Studies have estimated air infiltration accounts for up to 50% of a building’s energy demand. This stresses the need that energy simulation engines accurately account for air infiltration. An Enhanced Model for air infiltration has been developed.
A method of computing the transient temperature of thick walls from arbitrary variation of adiabatic-wall temperature and heat-transfer coefficient
A method of calculating the temperature of thick walls has been developed in which the time series and the response to a unit triangle variation of surface temperature concepts are used, together with essentially standard formulas for transient temperature and heat flow into thick walls. The method can be used without knowledge of the mathematical tools of its development. The method is particularly suitable for determining the wall temperature in one-dimensional thermal problems in aeronautics where there is a continuous variation of the heat-transfer coefficient and adiabatic-wall temperature. The method also offers a convenient means for solving the inverse problem of determining the heat-flow history when temperature history is known.