Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
I actually think that any lack of feature is not the problem. You can very well use EnergyPlus to model a single family house.
In my opinion the lack of EnergyPlus templates is because it's always been pretty overkilled to use such a complex simulation program to simulate such a small and simple building type. I say simple because it has very few zones, it's usually envelope-driven, the HVAC is very basic and the HVAC controls are too.
It's a building type you can model pretty well if not better using a simple spreadsheet[1]. For existing buildings it's even more true.
Using E+ for that is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. And there's just too much overhead: the learning curve for EnergyPlus is pretty steep and scary.
GUIs such as OpenStudio are now helping on that front, and it's probably a matter of time before there's people creating these missing templates. Perhaps you can contribute to this effort!
Source:
[1] Michael Blasnik's "SIMPLE" model for example. Read up WSUEEP12-005 to see a study where they used both SIMPLE and BEOpt for example.
Here's another high level article. I like some of the quotes:
Blasnik reminds energy nerds that not every house needs to be a science project. “For energy retrofits, don’t waste your time doing simulations with dozens of inputs,” he said. “Do the obvious stuff. Just fix the leaky uninsulated house — don’t model it."
| | 2 | No.2 Revision |
First, I agree with Amir that's it's EnergyPlus that has been lacking templates since its premises.
I actually think that any lack of feature is not the problem. You can very well use EnergyPlus to model a single family house.
In my opinion the lack of EnergyPlus templates is because it's always been pretty overkilled to use such a complex simulation program to simulate such a small and simple building type. I say simple because it has very few zones, it's usually envelope-driven, the HVAC is very basic and the HVAC controls are too.
It's a building type you can model pretty well if not better using a simple spreadsheet[1]. For existing buildings it's even more true.
Using E+ for that is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. And there's just too much overhead: the learning curve for EnergyPlus is pretty steep and scary.
GUIs such as OpenStudio are now helping on that front, and it's probably a matter of time before there's people creating these missing templates. Perhaps you can contribute to this effort!
Source:
[1] Michael Blasnik's "SIMPLE" model for example. Read up WSUEEP12-005 to see a study where they used both SIMPLE and BEOpt for example.
Here's another high level article. I like some of the quotes:
Blasnik reminds energy nerds that not every house needs to be a science project. “For energy retrofits, don’t waste your time doing simulations with dozens of inputs,” he said. “Do the obvious stuff. Just fix the leaky uninsulated house — don’t model it."
