Hourly simulation results of building energy simulation tools using a reference office building as a case study

Area of Science:

• Building Science
• Energy Simulation
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Building energy simulation tools are crucial for performance analysis.
• Standardized validation is needed to ensure reliability across different software.
• IEA SHC Task 56 provides a benchmark for office building simulations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a comprehensive dataset from multiple building energy simulation tools.
• To evaluate and compare the accuracy of various simulation software.
• To facilitate the cross-validation process for building energy models.

Main Methods:

• Simulated a characteristic office cell using EnergyPlus, TRNSYS, Simulink/CarnotUIBK, Simulink/ALMABuild, IDA ICE, Modelica/Dymola, and DALEC.
• Collected hourly thermal balance data (heating, cooling, infiltration, ventilation, internal/solar gains) and temperatures.
• Applied statistical indices (MBE, MAE, RMSE, R²) to assess tool accuracy.

Main Results:

• Generated hourly thermal balance and temperature data for simulations in Stockholm, Stuttgart, and Rome.
• Quantified the accuracy of each simulation tool using standard statistical metrics.
• Identified variations in simulation outputs across different software packages.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a valuable dataset for validating building energy simulation tools.
• Comparative analysis highlights the strengths and weaknesses of various simulation approaches.
• The findings support informed selection and application of simulation tools in building performance research.