A system for the comparison of tools for the simulation of water-based radiant heating and cooling systems

Low temperature heating and high temperature cool-ing systems such as thermally activated building sys-tems (TABS) offer the chance to use low exergy sources, which can be very beneficial financially as well as ecologically when using renewable energy sources.The above has led to a considerable increase of water based radiant systems in modern buildings and a need for reliable simulation tools to predict the indoor envi-ronment and energy performance.This paper describes the comparison of the building simulation tools IDA ICE, IES VE, EnergyPlus and TRNSYS. The simulation tools are compared to each other using the same room and boundary condi-tions.The results show significant differences in predicted room temperatures, heating and cooling degree hours as well as thermal comfort in winter and summer.