02386nas a2200181 4500008004100000245007500041210006900116520176700185653002301952653001501975653001601990653002802006653002202034653002402056100002002080700001902100856008502119 2017 eng d00aModeling of HVAC Operational Faults in Building Performance Simulation0 aModeling of HVAC Operational Faults in Building Performance Simu3 a
Operational faults are common in the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of existing buildings, leading to a decrease in energy efficiency and occupant comfort. Various fault detection and diagnostic methods have been developed to identify and analyze HVAC operational faults at the component or subsystem level. However, current methods lack a holistic approach to predicting the overall impacts of faults at the building level—an approach that adequately addresses the coupling between various operational components, the synchronized effect between simultaneous faults, and the dynamic nature of fault severity. This study introduces the novel development of a fault-modeling feature in EnergyPlus which fills in the knowledge gap left by previous studies. This paper presents the design and implementation of the new feature in EnergyPlus and discusses in detail the fault-modeling challenges faced. The new fault-modeling feature enables EnergyPlus to quantify the impacts of faults on building energy use and occupant comfort, thus supporting the decision making of timely fault corrections. Including actual building operational faults in energy models also improves the accuracy of the baseline model, which is critical in the measurement and verification of retrofit or commissioning projects. As an example, EnergyPlus version 8.6 was used to investigate the impacts of a number of typical operational faults in an office building across several U.S. climate zones. The results demonstrate that the faults have significant impacts on building energy performance as well as on occupant thermal comfort. Finally, the paper introduces future development plans for EnergyPlus fault-modeling capability.
10aenergy performance10aenergyplus10ahvac system10aModeling and simulation10aOperational fault10aThermal comfort 1 aZhang, Rongpeng1 aHong, Tianzhen uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/modeling-hvac-operational-faults