Issues to Be Solved for Energy Simulation of An Existing Office Building

With the increasing focus on low energy buildings and the need to develop sustainable built environments, Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) tools have been widely used. However, many issues remain when applying BEPS tools to existing buildings. This paper presents the issues that need to be solved for the application of BEPS tools to an existing office building. The selected building is an office building with 33 stories above ground, six underground levels, and a total floor area of 91,898 m(2). The issues to be discussed in this paper are as follows: (1) grey data not ready for simulation; (2) subjective assumptions and judgments on energy modeling; (3) stochastic characteristics of building performance and occupants behavior; (4) verification of model fidelity-comparison of aggregated energy; (5) verification of model fidelity-calibration by trial and error; and (6) use of simulation model for real-time energy management. This study investigates the aforementioned issues and explains the factors that should be considered to address these issues when developing a dynamic simulation model for existing buildings.