02294nas a2200265   4500008004100000022001300041245010900054210006900163260001200232300001400244490000800258520131500266653003101581653001701612653001501629653002401644653001901668653002201687100001501709700002001724700001901744700001401763700001801777856023301795       2018                        eng d  a1359431100aImpact of post-rainfall evaporation from porous roof tiles on building cooling load in subtropical China0 aImpact of postrainfall evaporation from porous roof tiles on bui  c09/2018  a391 - 4000 v1423 a<p>Rainfall occurs frequently in subtropical regions of China, with the subsequent water evaporation from building roofs impacting the thermal performance and the energy consumption of buildings. We proposed a novel simulation method using actual meteorological data to evaluate this impact. New features were developed in EnergyPlus to enable the simulation: (1) an evaporation latent heat flux source term was added to the heat balance equation of the external surface and (2) algorithms for the evaporative cooling module (ECM) were developed and implemented into EnergyPlus. The ECM experimental results showed good agreement with the simulated results. The ECM was used to assess the impact of evaporation from porous roof tiles on the cooling load of a one-floor building in subtropical China. The results show that the evaporation process decreased the maximal values of the external and internal roof surface temperatures by up to 6.4 °C and 3.2 °C, respectively, while the lower internal surface temperature decreased the room accumulated cooling load by up to 14.8% during the hot summer period. The enhanced EnergyPlus capability can be used to evaluate the evaporative cooling performance of roofs with water-storage mediums, as well as to quantify their impact on building cooling loads.</p>10aBuilding energy simulation10acooling load10aenergyplus10aEvaporative Cooling10aRainfall event10aSubtropical China1 aZhang, Lei1 aZhang, Rongpeng1 aHong, Tianzhen1 aZhang, Yu1 aMeng, Qinglin  uhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1359431117356107https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S1359431117356107?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S1359431117356107?httpAccept=text/plain02386nas a2200181   4500008004100000245007500041210006900116520176700185653002301952653001501975653001601990653002802006653002202034653002402056100002002080700001902100856008502119       2017                        eng d00aModeling of HVAC Operational Faults in Building Performance Simulation0 aModeling of HVAC Operational Faults in Building Performance Simu3 a<p class="06BodyMaintext">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.</p>10aenergy performance10aenergyplus10ahvac system10aModeling and simulation10aOperational fault10aThermal comfort  1 aZhang, Rongpeng1 aHong, Tianzhen  uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/modeling-hvac-operational-faults02814nas a2200349   4500008003900000245007400039210006900113260001100182490000800193520171300201653003701914653005101951653001402002653003202016653003202048653002602080653002202106653001502128653001502143653001302158653002002171653002402191100001902215700002202234700001702256700002002273700002802293700002002321700001502341700002302356856008502379       2015                          d00aCommercial Building Energy Saver: An energy retrofit analysis toolkit0 aCommercial Building Energy Saver An energy retrofit analysis too  c9/20150 v1593 a<p>Small commercial buildings in the United States consume 47% of the total primary energy of the buildings sector. Retrofitting small and medium commercial buildings poses a huge challenge for owners because they usually lack the expertise and resources to identify and evaluate cost-effective energy retrofit strategies. This paper presents the Commercial Building Energy Saver (CBES), an energy retrofit analysis toolkit, which calculates the energy use of a building, identifies and evaluates retrofit measures in terms of energy savings, energy cost savings and payback. The CBES Toolkit includes a web app (APP) for end users and the CBES Application Programming Interface (API) for integrating CBES with other energy software tools. The toolkit provides a rich set of features including: (1) Energy Benchmarking providing an Energy Star score, (2) Load Shape Analysis to identify potential building operation improvements, (3) Preliminary Retrofit Analysis which uses a custom developed pre-simulated database and, (4) Detailed Retrofit Analysis which utilizes real-time EnergyPlus simulations. CBES includes 100 configurable energy conservation measures (ECMs) that encompass IAQ, technical performance and cost data, for assessing 7 different prototype buildings in 16 climate zones in California and 6 vintages. A case study of a small office building demonstrates the use of the toolkit for retrofit analysis. The development of CBES provides a new contribution to the field by providing a straightforward and uncomplicated decision making process for small and medium business owners, leveraging different levels of assessment dependent upon user background, preference and data availability.</p>10aBuilding Technologies Department10aBuilding Technology and Urban Systems Division10abuildings10abuildings energy efficiency10aCommercial Building Systems10aconservation measures10aenergy efficiency10aenergy use10aenergyplus10aExternal10aRetrofit Energy10asimulation research1 aHong, Tianzhen1 aPiette, Mary, Ann1 aChen, Yixing1 aLee, Sang, Hoon1 aTaylor-Lange, Sarah, C.1 aZhang, Rongpeng1 aSun, Kaiyu1 aPrice, Phillip, N.  uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/commercial-building-energy-saver02134nas a2200253   4500008003900000245009200039210006900131260001100200490000800211520133600219653002401555653002001579653001501599653001401614653002101628653003001649100001901679700001501698700002001713700002101733700002301754700002001777856008301797       2015                          d00aDevelopment and validation of a new variable refrigerant flow systemmodel in EnergyPlus0 aDevelopment and validation of a new variable refrigerant flow sy  c9/20150 v1173 a<p>Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems vary the refrigerant flow to meet the dynamic zone thermalloads, leading to more efficient operations than other system types. This paper introduces a new modelthat simulates the energy performance of VRF systems in the heat pump (HP) operation mode. Com-pared with the current VRF-HP models implemented in EnergyPlus, the new VRF system model has morecomponent models based on physics and thus has significant innovations in: (1) enabling advanced con-trols, including variable evaporating and condensing temperatures in the indoor and outdoor units, andvariable fan speeds based on the temperature and zone load in the indoor units, (2) adding a detailedrefrigerant pipe heat loss calculation using refrigerant flow rate, operational conditions, pipe length, andpipe insulation materials, (3) improving accuracy of simulation especially in partial load conditions, and(4) improving the usability of the model by significantly reducing the number of user input performancecurves. The VRF-HP model is implemented in EnergyPlus and validated with measured data from fieldtests. Results show that the new VRF-HP model provides more accurate estimate of the VRF-HP systemperformance, which is key to determining code compliance credits as well as utilities incentive for VRFtechnologies.</p>10abuilding simulation10aenergy modeling10aenergyplus10aHeat pump10amodel validation10aVariable refrigerant flow1 aHong, Tianzhen1 aSun, Kaiyu1 aZhang, Rongpeng1 aHinokuma, Ryohei1 aKasahara, Shinichi1 aYura, Yoshinori  uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/development-and-validation-new