Metrics to gut check residential model results?

asked 2015-10-05 12:04:41 -0600

4745 ●10 ●17 http://bigladdersoftware.com/

What metrics do people use to gut check residential building model results?

So far, my measuring stick for quality assurance is creating a similar model in BEopt. This works pretty well, but it's definitely a substantial time commitment just to get a comparison point.

For commercial buildings, there are several sources that will give ranges of typical Energy Use Intensities (EUIs) for different building types in different climates.

To my knowledge, there is no real equivalent reference point for residential buildings. This makes sense. Residential buildings are more varied and are envelope dominated. Not all loads can be expected to scale well with building floor area.

Does anybody know of a good alternative?

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answered 2015-10-05 21:02:51 -0600

Eric Wilson

1853 ●12 ●8 https://resstock.nrel.gov/

RECS is good for this (in the U.S.). You can use the summary tables to slice by one or two parameters like region, vintage, size, fuel type, etc. You'll need to use the microdata if you need to slice more finely than that (not fast unless you have an established process for querying).

I happened to have this histogram handy. Looks like ~95% of SFD homes have Source EUI in the 40–200 kBtu/sf range.

image description

For new/recent construction, I think it is always going to be faster to use BEopt defaults (i.e. Building America Benchmark/IECC 2009).

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RECS data of EUI is useful but should be used cautiously because of regional differences. RECS doesn't give you the exact location; it just gives you the state or group of states. However, if your state is California, this can give you a very large range. It might not work as a "gut check".

And thanks for chatting with me at ASHRAE St Louis.

Use the degree days to restrict to the region you are modeling. kBTU/sf/DD may be more useful as it normalizes weather a bit

the codebook here details the variables. Relevant variables are TOTALBTU and HDD65 CDD65 HDD30YR CDD30Y and all *SQFT variable

chongman99 ( 2016-07-07 19:46:09 -0600 )edit

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answered 2015-10-05 14:55:26 -0600

Rohini
683 ●2 ●11

I used to look at the RECS data for that climate, building america data (from papers). Now you could run the energyplus residential reference files. All this is to get a general ball park number.

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Do you have specific Building America papers that you reference?

Neal Kruis ( 2015-10-05 15:38:11 -0600 )edit

I havn't done residential in a very long time. I had read up several papers, and made a excel sheet of the energy consumption (including end uses if available), location, sqft, and any other relevant info like construction etc. It did not have much data - maybe just 10-15 houses. The following might give you some references. http://www.ibpsa.us/sites/default/fil... Broniek, J; 2008; Modeling the Impacts of Performance Components in Super Energy Efficienct House Designs in Different Climate Zones; 2008 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Building

Rohini ( 2015-10-05 16:16:07 -0600 )edit

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