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Openstudio currently support run periods of more than 12 months (credit: @David Goldwasser)

Using multiple years works fine in EnergyPlus. This recent thread on the E+ Support group should be of interest. It states that the trick is just to copy-paste values in the epw file spaning more than one year.

A few things:

• If you really want to calibrate over more than one year, make sure you have a multiple of (typically) 12 months so that you capture full cycles of conditions. Otherwise, if doing it for example for two summers and one winter you'd end up over-weighting, in the calibration, the cooling component relative to the heating one

• I suggest using only one year for the calibration.

• Using two years will complicate the process, and you're more likely to have a number of factors in there that you can't explain: over two years the parameters that define a building are more likely to have changed, whether it be its envelope, something on the HVAC side that broke, or a change in occupancy/vacancy...

• Do the calibration on one year, and once satisfied, use the second year as a test sample to validate your model.
  1. This will potentially have another advantage for you right now in the sense that you'll be able to stay in OpenStudio, which does allow you to import utility bills and calculates metrics such as the Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error, CV(RMSE).
• If you are feeling adventurous, I suggest looking into using an optimization tool such as GenOpt to minimize the CV(RMSE) by varying parameters you define (anything hard to quantify such as Air Changes per Hour, etc). The second link below should help.

Previous questions on Unmet Hours that should be of interest:

• [When Calibrating an energy model, what are the typical metrics to show proper calibration]
• What are the available tools for calibrating energy model inputs using measured data.

For example, I have briefly used ExcalibBEM - a GUI for the optimization tool GenOpt - and it really poked my interest for calibrating existing buildings and I definitely intend to dig further.

Openstudio currently support run periods of more than 12 months (credit: @David Goldwasser)Goldwasser )

Using multiple years works fine in EnergyPlus. This recent thread on the E+ Support group should be of interest. It states that the trick is just to copy-paste values in the epw file spaning more than one year.

A few things:

• If you really want to calibrate over more than one year, make sure you have a multiple of (typically) 12 months so that you capture full cycles of conditions. Otherwise, if doing it for example for two summers and one winter you'd end up over-weighting, in the calibration, the cooling component relative to the heating one

• I suggest using only one year for the calibration.

• Using two years will complicate the process, and you're more likely to have a number of factors in there that you can't explain: over two years the parameters that define a building are more likely to have changed, whether it be its envelope, something on the HVAC side that broke, or a change in occupancy/vacancy...

• Do the calibration on one year, and once satisfied, use the second year as a test sample to validate your model.
  1. This will potentially have another advantage for you right now in the sense that you'll be able to stay in OpenStudio, which does allow you to import utility bills and calculates metrics such as the Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error, CV(RMSE).
• If you are feeling adventurous, I suggest looking into using an optimization tool such as GenOpt to minimize the CV(RMSE) by varying parameters you define (anything hard to quantify such as Air Changes per Hour, etc). The second link below should help.

Previous questions on Unmet Hours that should be of interest:

• [When Calibrating an energy model, what are the typical metrics to show proper calibration]
• What are the available tools for calibrating energy model inputs using measured data.

For example, I have briefly used ExcalibBEM - a GUI for the optimization tool GenOpt - and it really poked my interest for calibrating existing buildings and I definitely intend to dig further.

Openstudio currently does not support run periods of more than 12 months (credit: @David Goldwasser )

Using multiple years works fine in EnergyPlus. This recent thread on the E+ Support group should be of interest. It states that the trick is just to copy-paste values in the epw file spaning more than one year.

A few things:

• If you really want to calibrate over more than one year, make sure you have a multiple of (typically) 12 months so that you capture full cycles of conditions. Otherwise, if doing it for example for two summers and one winter you'd end up over-weighting, in the calibration, the cooling component relative to the heating one

• I suggest using only one year for the calibration.

• Using two years will complicate the process, and you're more likely to have a number of factors in there that you can't explain: over two years the parameters that define a building are more likely to have changed, whether it be its envelope, something on the HVAC side that broke, or a change in occupancy/vacancy...

• Do the calibration on one year, and once satisfied, use the second year as a test sample to validate your model.
  1. This will potentially have another advantage for you right now in the sense that you'll be able to stay in OpenStudio, which does allow you to import utility bills and calculates metrics such as the Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error, CV(RMSE).
• If you are feeling adventurous, I suggest looking into using an optimization tool such as GenOpt to minimize the CV(RMSE) by varying parameters you define (anything hard to quantify such as Air Changes per Hour, etc). The second link below should help.

Previous questions on Unmet Hours that should be of interest:

• [When Calibrating an energy model, what are the typical metrics to show proper calibration]
• What are the available tools for calibrating energy model inputs using measured data.

For example, I have briefly used ExcalibBEM - a GUI for the optimization tool GenOpt - and it really poked my interest for calibrating existing buildings and I definitely intend to dig further.

Openstudio currently does not support run periods of more than 12 months (credit: @David Goldwasser )

Using multiple years works fine in EnergyPlus. This recent thread on the E+ Support group should be of interest. It states that the trick is just to copy-paste values in the epw file spaning more than one year.

A few things:

• If you really want to calibrate over more than one year, make sure you have a multiple of (typically) 12 months so that you capture full cycles of conditions. Otherwise, if doing it for example for two summers and one winter you'd end up over-weighting, in the calibration, the cooling component relative to the heating one

• I suggest using only one year for the calibration.

• Using two years will complicate the process, and you're more likely to have a number of factors in there that you can't explain: over two years the parameters that define a building are more likely to have changed, whether it be its envelope, something on the HVAC side that broke, or a change in occupancy/vacancy...

• Do the calibration on one year, and once satisfied, use the second year as a test sample to validate your model.
  1. This will potentially have another advantage for you right now in the sense that you'll be able to stay in OpenStudio, which does allow you to import utility bills and calculates metrics such as the Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error, CV(RMSE).
• If you are feeling adventurous, I suggest looking into using an optimization tool such as GenOpt to minimize the CV(RMSE) by varying parameters you define (anything hard to quantify such as Air Changes per Hour, etc). The second link below should help.

Previous questions on Unmet Hours that should be of interest:

• [When When Calibrating an energy model, what are the typical metrics to show proper calibration]calibration
• What are the available tools for calibrating energy model inputs using measured data.

For example, I have briefly used ExcalibBEM - a GUI for the optimization tool GenOpt - and it really poked my interest for calibrating existing buildings and I definitely intend to dig further.

Openstudio currently does not support run periods of more than 12 months (credit: @David Goldwasser )

Using multiple years works fine in EnergyPlus. This recent thread on the E+ Support group should be of interest. It states that the trick is just to copy-paste values in the epw file spaning more than one year.

A few things:

• If you really want to calibrate over more than one year, make sure you have a multiple of (typically) 12 months so that you capture full cycles of conditions. Otherwise, if doing it for example for two summers and one winter you'd end up over-weighting, in the calibration, the cooling component relative to the heating one

• I suggest using only one year for the calibration.

1. Using two years will complicate the process, and you're more likely to have a number of factors in there that you can't explain: over two years the parameters that define a building are more likely to have changed, whether it be its envelope, something on the HVAC side that broke, or a change in occupancy/vacancy...

2. Do the calibration on one year, and once satisfied, use the second year as a test sample to validate your model.
   1. model.

   2. This will potentially have another advantage for you right now in the sense that you'll be able to stay in OpenStudio, which does allow you to import utility bills and calculates metrics such as the Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error, CV(RMSE).

• If you are feeling adventurous, I suggest looking into using an optimization tool such as GenOpt to minimize the CV(RMSE) by varying parameters you define (anything hard to quantify such as Air Changes per Hour, etc). The second link below should help.

Previous questions on Unmet Hours that should be of interest:

• When Calibrating an energy model, what are the typical metrics to show proper calibration
• What are the available tools for calibrating energy model inputs using measured data.

For example, I have briefly used ExcalibBEM - a GUI for the optimization tool GenOpt - and it really poked my interest for calibrating existing buildings and I definitely intend to dig further.

Openstudio currently does not support run periods of more than 12 months (credit: @David Goldwasser )

Using multiple years works fine in EnergyPlus. This recent thread on the E+ Support group should be of interest. It states that the trick is just to copy-paste values in the epw file spaning more than one year.

A few things:

• If you really want to calibrate over more than one year, make sure you have a multiple of (typically) 12 months so that you capture full cycles of conditions. Otherwise, if doing it for example for two summers and one winter you'd end up over-weighting, in the calibration, the cooling component relative to the heating one
• I suggest using only one year for the calibration.

1. Using two years will complicate the process, and you're more likely to have a number of factors in there that you can't explain: over two years the parameters that define a building are more likely to have changed, whether it be its envelope, something on the HVAC side that broke, or a change in occupancy/vacancy...
2. Do the calibration on one year, and once satisfied, use the second year as a test sample to validate your model.

3. This will potentially have another advantage for you right now in the sense that you'll be able to stay in OpenStudio, which does allow you to import utility bills and calculates metrics such as the Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error, CV(RMSE).

Also:

• If you are feeling adventurous, I suggest looking into using an optimization tool such as GenOpt to minimize the CV(RMSE) by varying parameters you define (anything hard to quantify such as Air Changes per Hour, etc). The second link below should help.

Previous questions on Unmet Hours that should be of interest:

• When Calibrating an energy model, what are the typical metrics to show proper calibration
• What are the available tools for calibrating energy model inputs using measured data.

For example, I have briefly used ExcalibBEM - a GUI for the optimization tool GenOpt - and it really poked my interest for calibrating existing buildings and I definitely intend to dig further.