Energyplus: The new generation energy simulation program beyond blast and DOE-2

Many existing building energy simulation programs around the world are reaching maturity. They use simulation methods land even code) that originated in the 1960s. For more than two decades, the US government has developed two hourly building energy simulation programs, DOE-2 and BLAST. Without substantial redesign and recoding, expanding their capabilities has become difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. During the same time, recent advances in analysis and computational methods and power have increased the opportunity for significant improvements in these tools. In early 1996, a federal agency began developing a new building energy simulation tool, EnergyPlus, building on development experience with two existing programs: DOE-2 and BLAST. Beta testing of EnergyPlus begins in 1998. EnergyPlus will include innovative simulation features including variable time steps, built-in template and external modular systems that are integrated with a heat balance-based zone simulation, and input and output data structures tailored to facilitate third party interface development. Other simulation capabilities planned for the first release include multizone airflow, and electric power and solar thermal and photovoltaic simulation.