EnergyPlus Software

EnergyPlus is a building energy simulation program, designed for modeling buildings with associated heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows. It is available free from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

EnergyPlus builds on the most popular features and capabilities of BLAST and DOE-2 but includes many innovative simulation capabilities including time steps of less than an hour and modular systems simulation modules that are integrated with a heat balance-based zone simulation. Other planned simulation capabilities include solar thermal, multi-zone air flow, and electric power simulation, including photovoltaic systems and fuel cells.

Highlights of using EnergyPlus version 1.0 include:

• Extensive example heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) input files
• Heat pump simulations
• Weather processor