The new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) building energy simulation program EnergyPlus will be extended with models to predict the energy performance of low-energy cooling systems in order to:

• Support the Phase II assessment work in Project 1;
   
• Provide a suitable simulation engine for use in a low-energy cooling design tool that can compare different low-energy cooling strategies with each other and with conventional systems.

Tasks:

Extend EnergyPlus with a model to predict the energy performance of Displacement Ventilation systems.

Extend EnergyPlus with a model to predict the performance of Natural Ventilation systems.

Extend EnergyPlus with a model to predict the energy performance of Cool Ceiling Panel systems. The radiant cooling model will be developed based on the extended slab model currently in EnergyPlus.

Project Team:

Paul Linden (University of California, San Diego)

Philip Haves (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Michael Holmes and Peter Alspach (Ove Arup & Partners)

Clark Bisel (Flack+Kurtz)