Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
From my experience, the vast majority of the schedules currently being used are based on "engineering judgement" rather than actual measured data. The only research project I'm aware of that developed usage schedules from measured data was an ASHRAE Project 1093 "Compilation of Diversity Factors and Schedules for Energy and Cooling Load Calculations" done by Texas A&M and finished in 2000.
The main takeaway I got from the project, for which I was the PMS Chair, was that the offhour lighting electricity use (50% of peak) was substantially more than assumed in the typical office schedules that were in use (15-20%).
There's so much natural variation in how buildings are operated or used that I see minor benefit to getting detailed measured schedules from one building and then use them in modeling another building. In some ways, it might be preferable to use the simpler standard schedules that are largely tied to assumed hours of operation, with one value for the on hours, another for the off hours, and then maybe a one-hour ramp up or dip at lunchtime.
| | 2 | No.2 Revision |
From my experience, the vast majority of the schedules currently being used are based on "engineering judgement" rather than actual measured data. The only research project I'm aware of that developed usage schedules from measured data was an ASHRAE Project 1093 "Compilation of Diversity Factors and Schedules for Energy and Cooling Load Calculations" Calculations" done by Texas A&M and finished in 2000.
The main takeaway I got from the project, for which I was the PMS Chair, was that the offhour lighting electricity use (50% of peak) was substantially more than assumed in the typical office schedules that were in use (15-20%).
There's so much natural variation in how buildings are operated or used that I see minor benefit to getting detailed measured schedules from one building and then use them in modeling another building. In some ways, it might be preferable to use the simpler standard schedules that are largely tied to assumed hours of operation, with one value for the on hours, another for the off hours, and then maybe a one-hour ramp up or dip at lunchtime.
