We are using energy+ methodology and its accompanying library of chiller curves to track & benchmark realtime performance of actual chillers. This works surprisingly well, but the library of curves is super old (~1990s-early 2000s) and contains very few chillers with variable speed drives so it has its limitations.
Is anyone aware of a more up-to-date (i.e. 2015+) database of chiller curves?
There are some curves that can be used with ASHRAE 90.1 Performance Rating Method that are described in Appendix J of 90.1-2022 and 90.1-2025 and are also available here:
PNNL's Copper tool uses a library of chiller performance curves to derive a curve set based on the user's target characteristics. The curve library "is a collection of performance curves from different sources, including publicly available resources such as the dataset included with EnergyPlus, performance curves generated from data obtained from manufacturer equipment selection software, and performance curves generated from manufacturer-published expanded performance data tables." Read more about it in the paper published at SimBuild 2024.
Asked: 2026-06-29 17:25:18 -0500
Seen: 116 times
Last updated: 23 hours ago
Looking forward to an answer on this myself. To my knowledge manufacturers weren’t really keen on providing their performance curves. Partly for liability and partly, I would guess, because they don’t want the competition knowing their capabilities. That said, VRF manufacturers weren’t kind of forced to divulge their performance curves in order for the engineers to design the systems, so VRF curves are a lot easier to get a hold of (https://youtu.be/TJa2JK8QSRg?is=4QmAe...). I did try getting chiller curves a number of years ago, but getting sufficient datapoints was a disaster.