Analyzing the Effects of HVAC Equipment Uncertainty in Building Energy Modeling for Professional Environment

The concept of evaluating the effects of uncertainty in energy modeling has been discussed in the past few years widely in academic environment. These evaluations have been mainly concentrated on architectural components of the buildings. Little effort has been done to investigate the effects of the uncertainty in the mechanical systems of the building on the energy modeling outcome. There has been a barrier against implementing the findings of the academic research into real world professional architectural and HVAC engineering design. The fact is that majority of the academic research in the field of uncertainty is done with software that are popular in academic environment but are not the choice of professional engineers when performing real life building energy modeling. To help improve this disconnect between the academic and professional realm, this effort introduces a supplemental software that is written on afree platform (Python) and can be interlocked with eQuest-that is used for energy modeling by professional firms. Using this supplementary program helps engineers to start with mechanical parameters such as efficiency of boilers and efficiency of chillers as it has been used in design document, and change the values associated with these efficiencies within the allowed tolerances by testing standards. The study finds that the developed supplementary software can help specifying close to 6% range for energy consumption of a typical four-story office building, which highlights the supplementary software ability to improve current state of professional energy modeling practice.