Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
There are some examples just covering the EnergyPlus side that are included with the EnergyPlus installation. In the ExampleFiles subdirectory where EnergyPlus is installed are two files that cover different aspects of cost effectiveness. The first 5ZoneCostEst.idf shows how the ComponentCost:LineItem, ComponentCost:Reference, and ComponentCost:Adjustment objects work. These objects can be used to come up with first cost estimates for building components. You still need to provide values but the costs can be expressed as on a per area, per item, per output capacity, per volume, etc.. basis. This allows changes to the building model to be captured as changes in the first costs. For operating and lifecycle costs, the 5ZoneEconomicTariffAndLifeCycleCosts.idf file in the same directory is a good example. It shows how to use the UtilityCost objects to describe a variety of tariffs as well as using the LIfeCycleCost objects to describe other recurring and nonrecurring costs.
