The program used for building energy simulation for the creation of the BEES template models was EnergyPlus (US Department of Energy, 2010). OpenStudio (NREL, 2011) is a third-party graphical interface run through Google SketchUp (Google, 2009) and is used for the modelling of the buildings geometry.
EnergyPlus and OpenStudio are both downloadable from the United States Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy:
- Energy Plus: www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/downloads/energyplus-0
- OpenStudio: www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/downloads/openstudio-0
The process for modelling with a template complete with step-by-step instructions can be found here.
EnergyPlus
EnergyPlus is a complete building energy simulation engine that is used to model energy and water use in buildings. Modelling the performance of a building with EnergyPlus enables professionals within the building industry to optimise the building design to use less energy and water in the early stages of design.
Based on a user's description of a building, EnergyPlus calculates the heating and cooling loads necessary to maintain thermal control set points, conditions throughout a secondary HVAC system and coil loads and the energy consumption of primary plant equipment, thus simulating a building's energy performance (US Department of Energy, 2010). EnergyPlus's strengths include detailed simulation, including time steps of less than an hour, and input and output data structures tailored to facilitate third-party interfaces such as OpenStudio. The Google SketchUp OpenStudio plug-in allows the use of a graphical interface to overcome EnergyPlus being a text editor.
OpenStudio
OpenStudio is a free plug-in for the Google SketchUp 3D drawing program and was created by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the US Department of Energy. OpenStudio makes it easier to create and edit the building geometry in EnergyPlus input files through the use of standard SketchUp tools. OpenStudio allows the user to create and edit EnergyPlus zones and surfaces, match inter-zone surface boundary conditions, set default constructions and add internal gains and ideal HVAC systems for load calculations (US Department of Energy, 2010).