This paper addresses the utility and the difficulties to predict the actual energy consumption of existing buildings, that can be useful to calculate true energy conservation potential taking into account the real usage of the building. True indoor temperature is of particular importance but also the availability of casual and solar gains. A sensitivity analysis on the set of behavioural parameters shows that the casual gains are highly dependent on the number of occupants at home and the lighting scenario, which requires to collect information about the occupants way of life.

We present an advanced formulation of zonal models for calculating indoor air temperature and flow distributions in buildings. Our modeling is based on  modularity:

This paper is focused on a mathematical model applied to both building thermal analysis and control systems design. A lumped approach is used to model the room air temperature and a multi-layer model for the building envelope. The capacitance model allows to study the transient analysis of room air temperature when it is submitted to sinusoidal variation of external air temperature, representing a case study for a cold day in the south Brazil. To evaluate the building performance with thermal parameters, we use MATLAB/SIMULINK.

This paper gives an overview about the use of building simulation in Switzerland. It focuses 4 different areas:

This article introduces building simulation in conjunction with a HVAC system, especially a split system, considering thermal and moisture behaviors of the perimeter walls. A description of such a HVAC system is taken from TASK 22/ HVAC BESTEST [4]. Its model had already been validated by analytical methods and verified by comparative tests [5]. In order to simulate the thermal and moisture behaviors of the walls a TYPE 158 [6] has been developed based on the finite element method. Its results are in very good agreement with the humidity response function [7].

A directory of building energy software tools is now available on the web. The directory contains information on more than 100 tools ranging from research software to commercial products with thousands of users. The common thread for all the software is improving energy efficiency or incorporating renewable energy concepts in buildings.

The continuing development of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard by the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) creates new possibilities for achieving interoperability for design software through the use of a common object model of the building and its open data transfer standard. Several architectural CAD tools are already IFC compliant. However, in-depth knowledge of the highly complex IFC object model is required to develop IFC-compliant software.

Horizontal and vertical brises soleil are dominant elements in the modernist tropical architecture. It was the obvious answer to the question on how to adapt the modernist architecture, developed in moderate climates, to the tropical climate with its particularly high solar radiation. Buildings for example like, the buildings of the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas (Carlos R. Villanueva, 1945 – 1953) or the ministry of education and culture MEC (Lúcio Costa, Le Corbusier et al.

This paper will describe a simulation experiment designed to benchmark the use of separate electric driven chiller plants for a nominal 100,000 sq. meter medical facility comprising two (2) twelve (12) story medical office towers and an adjacent six (6) story hospital incorporating gas and steam turbine driven chillers and separate gas turbine driven synchronous generator against each building with conventionally designed, separate plants using head to head computer simulation scenarios.

In object based models, conversion becomes necessary when there is a mismatch among the representations of same physical quantity at the ports of different objects that need to be connected. The simplest example of this is with regard to physical units of measure, such as temperature. A more complex situation, but with the same character, is with regard to fluid flow, where the state can be represented in terms of any pair of independent properties, and the flow rate can be expressed volumetrically or in terms of mass.