Bldg. 90, Room 3147
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
One Cyclotron Road
Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
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Bldg. 90, Room 3147 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory One Cyclotron Road Berkeley, CA 94720 USA |
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| Phone: 510.486.5711 | Fax: 486.4089 |
| EnergyPlus |
A new-generation building energy simulation program based on DOE-2 and BLAST,
with numerous added capabilities. Developed by the LBNL Simulation Research
Group, the Building Systems Laboratory at the University of Illinois,
the Florida Solar Energy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory,
and others for
the U.S. Department of Energy. Current projects include testing and
validation; training; program deployment; implementation of BLAST and DOE-2
features not yet in EnergyPlus; adding features needed to make EnergyPlus
useful for standards development and compliance; improved foundation heat
transfer calculations; improved moisture calculations; development of HVAC
equipment models; development of a duct-loss model; a real-time version
of EnergyPlus; and a link between SPARK and EnergyPlus.
Work is also underway to develop prototypical building models for the U.S.
residential and commercial building stock and use those models in EnergyPlus
to analyze energy use characteristics in different climates.
EnergyPlus Development Team at LBNL: Fred Buhl, Ender Erdem, Tianzhen Hong, Michael Wetter. |
| Building Controls Virtual Test Bed (Wiki) |
The Building Controls Virtual Test Bed wiki describes the ongoing development of an environment for
modular simulation. The environment will make it easier for designers, engineers and researchers
of building energy and controls systems to interface different simulation programs with each other
and with BACnet compliant Building Automation Systems, thereby facilitating:
• innovation in integrated building energy and controls systems, • development of new controls algorithms, and • formal verification of controls algorithms prior to deployment in a building in order to reduce commissioning time. Contact Michael Wetter. |
| Collaboration Platform for Simulation-Based Building Systems R&D |
The goal of this project is to make building system modeling as convenient as possible
to the model builder, and flexible and fast enough that it will drive innovation towards
Zero Energy Buildings. We intend to collaboratively develop an R&D platform that enables
integrated multi-disciplinary building systems R&D based on simulation and computational
engineering.
Contact
Michael Wetter or
Philip Haves.
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| SPARK |
SPARK/VisualSPARK allows users to construct models of complex building energy
systems by connecting equation modules from a library. The program then uses
robust methods to solve the resulting set of differential and algebraic
equations at a user-specified time step. Current research includes work on a
SPARK-to-EnergyPlus Link so that SPARK models of HVAC components, systems and
controls can be run within EnergyPlus. The program is free of charge; register
here to download. VisualSPARK Developers at LBNL:
Ender Erdem and Michael Wetter.
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| GenOpt | GenOpt allows multidimensional optimization of an objective function that is computed by a simulation program. The optimization is done by systematic variation of specified design parameters in order to minimize or maximize the objective function. The main purpose of the optimization tool is to avoid the time-consuming process of determining the best values of design parameters. GenOpt is general in its interface and operating structure. The interface is easy to use, and the program can be coupled to any simulation program (such as SPARK or EnergyPlus) that reads its input from a text file and writes its output to a text file. GenOpt, written entirely in Java, is completely platform independent. To download GenOpt, click here. The GenOpt project was carried out by Michael Wetter. Click here to download Michael's dissertation: "Simulation-Based Building Energy Optimization") |
| DOE-2 |
DOE-2 is a computer program for the design of energy-efficient buildings.
Developed for the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory's Simulation Research Group, DOE-2 calculates the
hourly energy use and energy cost of a commercial or residential building
given information about the building's climate, construction,
operation, utility rate schedule, and HVAC equipment. DOE-2 Team at LBNL:
Fred Buhl,
Ender Erdem,
Kathy Ellington. |
Related Projects
| DElight |
(Daylighting and Electric Lighting Simulation Engine)
is a daylighting simulation tool for buildings; it is designed to
efficiently and accurately calculate lighting levels and daylight factors
at predefined positions in a room for specified exterior illumination
environments ("daylight"). The tool includes a building input reader and
parser, a multi-environment preprocessor that does daylight simulations for
a range of predefined external environments, a calculation of daylight
factors, and an annual, hourly time step simulation of a lighting control
model that determines hourly lighting electricity reductions due to daylighting.
DElight features radiosity-based interreflection calculation and complex
fenestration systems (CFS), such as blinds, modeled with Bidirectional
Transmission Distribution Functions (BTDF). DElight will be linked to
EnergyPlus and will also be available as a stand-alone program.
Rob Hitchcock is in charge of DElight development at LBNL. |
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BDA:
Building Design Advisor |
The Building Design Advisor (BDA) supports the concurrent, integrated use of
multiple simulation tools and databases, through a single, object-based
representation of building components and systems. Based on a
comprehensive design theory, the BDA acts as a data manager and
process controller, allowing building designers to benefit from the
capabilities of multiple analysis and visualization tools throughout the
building design process. The BDA has a simple Graphical User Interface
that is based on two main elements, the Building Browser and the
Decision Desktop.
BDA Developer is now at the University of California at Davis: Kosta Papamichael |
| International
Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) |
The IAI project develops
Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and an integrated building information
model for describing buildings. It also develops methods for allowing
applications, such as CAD and energy analysis, to interoperate with the
information model. Interoperability will allow diverse building drawing and
simulation tools to share the same building description and to exchange
results, thus simplifying building design, construction and operation.
LBNL's IAI Development Team: Vladimir Bazjanac and Rob Hitchcock. |
| RESFEN |
A PC-based computer program (using DOE-2.1E as the simulation engine) for
calculating the heating and cooling energy performance and cost of
residential fenestration systems.
For a free RESFEN CD, send email to Robin Mitchell. RESFEN Development Team at LBNL: Dariush Arasteh, and Robin Mitchell. |
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Fred Buhl
Group Leader, Senior Scientific/Engineering Associate
Current projects include EnergyPlus and DOE-2 [a photo of Fred and former President Clinton]. |
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Kathy Ellington
Technical Editor/Writer
Current projects include this website, the monthly newsletter (Building Energy Simulation User News), DOE-2 program documentation, VisualSPARK documentation. |
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Ender Erdem
Senior Scientific/Engineering Associate
Current projects include SPARK, EnergyPlus and DOE-2. |
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Tianzhen Hong
Research Scientist
Current projects include EnergyPlus development, California Building Energy Efficiency Standards, a data center energy analysis tool, and an assessment of windows energy impacts for commercial buildings. |
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Michael Wetter Computational Scientist
Current projects include EnergyPlus, the Building Controls Virtual Test Bed , GenOpt, SPARK, and the Collaboration Platform for Simulation-Based Building Systems R&D. |
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Drury Crawley,
Program Manager for the Simulation Research Group at DOE Headquarters: MS: EE-2J/Building Technologies Program U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue S.W., Washington, DC 20585-0121 Phone: (202) 586-2344, Fax: (202) 586-1628 |
Linda K. Lawrie DHL Consulting |
Curt Pedersen Building Systems Laboratory University of Illinois |
Brent Griffith National Renewable Energy Laboratory |
Rick Strand Dept. of Architecture University of Illinois |
Dan Fisher The Oklahoma State University |
Don B. Shirey, III Florida Solar Energy Center |
Lixing Gu Florida Solar Energy Center |
Richard Raustad, Florida Solar Energy Center |
Phil Haves, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
Peter Ellis National Renewable Energy Laboratory |
Rob Hitchcock, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
Bob Henninger GARD Analytics |
Michael J. Witte GARD Analytics |
Jason Glazer GARD Analytics |
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Ed Sowell,
(home page)
Department of Computer Science, California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92871 Tel: 714-278-3291, Fax: 714-278-7168 |
All Ed ... All The Time |
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Drew Moshier
Dept. of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics, Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell, Orange CA 92866 |
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Fred Winkelmann
Group Leader retired in 2004 |
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Dimitri Curtil
SPARK Project |
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Brian Smith
SPARK Project |
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Olivier Renon
French Visitor |
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Joe Huang
DOE-2 Retired 2007 |
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Seth Rosen, Licensing Expert |
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Rich Liesen EnergyPlus |
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In Memoriam: Bruce E. Birdsall
DOE-2 Development |
