Overview of computational tools for building regulation compliance

Ya Liu

Scottish Energy Systems Group

www.sesg.strath.ac.uk

Approved software for compliance

To calculate the energy performance of buildings and

demonstrate compliance with the Building Regulations, only software that has been approved by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) can be used. Domestic: SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) 2005 Non-domestic: SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) Accredited dynamic simulation software

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Approved software for compliance

For non-domestic buildings

Approved interfaces
iSBEM (v2.0.c) Carbon Checker (v1.2) Hevacomp (v23.0) IES VE (v5.8.1) Designbuilder (v1.4.0) DigitalEnergy (v1.0.12) ECAT (v6.0)

Calculation engine SBEM

Compliance Part L2 (England & Wales) Section6 (Scotland) Part F2 (Northern Ireland)

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Approved software for compliance

For non-domestic buildings

Accredited dynamic simulation software EDSL TAS (v 9.0.9)
TAS engine

IES VE (v 5.8)
ApacheSim

Hevacomp (design simulation v2)

EnergyPlus engine

Dynamic simulation for compliance with Building Regulations: Part L2 (England & Wales) Section6 (Scotland)

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Approved software for compliance

For domestic buildings

SAP 2005 Scope for building regulations Part L1 (England &Wales) Section 6 (Scotland) Part F1 (Northern Ireland) Approved interfaces EES SAP Calculator v013 NHER plan Assessor v3.0 SuperHeat v6.20 JPA Designer v4.02 SAPPER v7.2 Knauf Insulation SAP2005 Calculator v 2.0 Compliance

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Approved software for compliance

For domestic buildings

Approved interfaces Thermica v1.0 Scope for building regulations Part L1 (England &Wales) Part F1 (Northern Ireland) Part L1 (England &Wales) Section6 (Scotland) Part L1 (England &Wales)

SAP Calculator v3.1 Hevacomp SAP 2005 v23.0 IES VE v 5.6 MAXIM5 v1.1 BuildDesk v1.3 Lifespan SAP2005 Cymap 2008

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

1. Calculation method
SBEM IES TAS Hevacomp Quasi-steady state calculation based on monthly energy balance to obtain annual energy results (Microsoft Access application) Dynamic building simulation with a userspecified time step (down to 1 minute as needed)

Note: IES IES VE v5.8; TAS EDSL TAS v9.0.9; Hevacomp Hevacomp Design Simulation v2

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

2. Climate data
SBEM Monthly climate data incorporated in the software covering 14 UK cities CIBSE Test Reference Year (TRY) climate data for criterion 1 (CO2 emission) and CIBSE Design Summer Year (DSY) climate data for criterion 3 of Part L2 (overheating risk). These sets of hourly historical weather data need to be licensed from CIBSE

IES TAS Hevacomp

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

3. Geometry
SBEM No graphic approach in iSBEM. Enter dimensions of building zones in the interface. Can use 3rd party to get graphical inputs to SBEM calculations. 3D graphics based geometry input: drawing 3D model directly importing a CAD plan as a template for drawing walls, creating windows and doors. IES CAD import: DXF, gbXML and Revit connection TAS CAD import: DWG Hevacomp CAD import: DXF www.sesg.strath.ac.uk

IES TAS Hevacomp

Scottish Energy Systems Group

Main differences between approved software

4. Orientation
SBEM IES TAS Hevacomp 8 orientations: north, south, east, west, northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast.

Unlimited orientations

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

5. Views of buildings
SBEM TAS Hevacomp No images of actual building and notional building in iSBEM. Can view buildings through 3rd party Interfaces Views of actual building are available. Views of both actual and notional buildings are available.
Actual building notional building

IES

(Note: Pictures are provided by IES)

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

6. Air infiltration rate
SBEM IES TAS Hevacomp No input for air infiltration rate. Instead, building air permeability (m3/hr/m2 at 50 Pa) is introduced to calculate air infiltration rate. Infiltration rate can be set up for each zone, which is used for simulation. Building air permeability is only used for BRUKL checking. Conversion from air permeability to infiltration rate can be calculated using CIBSE Guide method.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

7. Solar shading

Movable solar protection shading

SBEM
system is only considered for calculation. No consideration of the shading effect from ground, trees, other buildings and building itself (L-shape) transmission factor = partial shading correction factor for overhangs X partial shading correction factor for fins Internal shading: Mainly curtains and blinds

External shading:

External shading: External shading devices/surrounding buildings or TAS

obstructions can be set up for shading calculation based on each time step of the simulation. Shading devices can be controlled based on internal air temperatures and occupancy schedules.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

7. Solar shading
Local shading devices: balcony, overhang and fin which can
either be defined or be modelled as obstructions.

Internal shading devices: curtains and blinds External shading devices: shutter and Louvre which can
either be defined or be modelled as obstructions.

IES

Both internal and external shading devices can be controlled based on internal air temperature and occupancy schedules.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

7. Solar shading
Internal shading: curtains and blinds External shading: Hevacomp

external shading devices, such as overhangs, fins and shutters

etc can either be defined through its shading device library or be modelled as part of construction. Surrounding buildings can be modelled as obstructions. Both internal and external shading devices can be controlled based on internal air temperature and occupancy schedules.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

8. Natural ventilation
SBEM Assumed value based on standard occupancy for each zone. Natural ventilation can be calculated in two ways: Additional Free Cooling Flow Capacity
It indicates the maximum intake of outside air that is available for free cooling, whose value represents the additional outside air intake over and above the minimum ventilation level.

IES

MacroFlo link

Control window openings according to internal air temperatures and occupancy profiles

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

8. Natural ventilation
Natural ventilation can be modelled by opening windows/vents to control internal air temperatures. It has wind and stack driven bulk air flow simulation integrated with the building simulation. Additionally, it can simulate mixed-mode ventilation. Natural ventilation is modelled by using EnergyPlus Hevacomp multi-zone air flow model. Mixed-mode operations can be simulated.

TAS

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

9. Avoidance of summer overheating (criterion 3 of Part L2 for England & Wales)

SBEM IES TAS Hevacomp

Not available. Use additional software or other methods e.g. CIBSE TM37 Can be done by predicting the number of hours that exceed targets.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

10. Daylighting
L solar (light transmittance) is used for daylighting calculations. L solar = f (T solar, reduction factor)
Window shading system Thermal transmittance (glass type)

SBEM

Do daylight simulation to obtain daylight factors. IES With these daylight factors daylight available in the TAS zones for each hour of the year will be calculated, Hevacomp which will then be used with a range of switching and dimming controls to determine lighting energy use for each hour.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

11. Lighting and lighting control
SBEM IES TAS Hevacomp A dedicated lighting dialogue allows for a range of lighting control options to be specified at a basic level. Lighting is handled differently due to the nature of dynamic thermal simulation. Sensors can be placed in zones and a wide range of switching and dimming controls allow complex controls to be modelled at each time step of the simulation.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

12. Plant system

Pre-defined types of plant

system Editable plant performance parameters SBEM

e.g. seasonal heating/cooling energy efficiencies, heat recovery efficiency

Plant performance is calculated

based on total annual heating and cooling loads and plant performance parameters, such as Heating Seasonal Coefficient of Performance (SCoP), Seasonal System Energy Efficiency Ratio for cooling (SSEER) and auxiliary energy efficiency. Scottish Energy Systems Group www.sesg.strath.ac.uk

Main differences between approved software

12. Plant system

Similar pre-defined types of plant system as those in

SBEM More editable plant performance parameters, e.g. IES auxiliary energy efficiency, heating/cooling delivery efficiencies, heat rejection pump & fan power No dynamic modelling of plant components involved. Individual plant components system can be set up. TAS Hourly dynamic plant simulation is carried out. Individual plant components system can be set up. Hevacomp Plant system is dynamically modelled using plant part load efficiency curves.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

www.sesg.strath.ac.uk

Main differences between approved software

13. Renewable technologies

Wind generators
Terrain type, diameter, hub height and power and number

SBEM

Solar panels Solar panels

Area, orientation, inclination and number

PV (Photovoltaic)

Type, area, orientation, inclination and number Solar conversion data, inclination, parasitic power, manifold to air temperature difference, 3D model

TAS

PV (Photovoltaic)

Power generation curves, power reduction, panel aging, inverter efficiency, 3D model

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Main differences between approved software

13. Renewable technologies

Wind generators
Set up your own power curve

Solar panels
IES

Area, Azimuth, tilt, shading factor, degradation factor, conversion efficiency at ambient temperature, flow rate, pump power, heat exchanger effectiveness, first/second order heat loss coefficients and solar panel storage cylinder

PV (Photovoltaic)

Type, degradation factor, shading factor, electrical conversion Efficiency and performance parameters from PV array type

Hevacomp Wind generators Solar panels PV (Photovoltaic)

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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How do results from different tools compare?

Identical building model SBEM Accredited dynamic tools

CIBSE TM33 Tests standard tests for the assessment of building services design software EN ISO 13791 Thermal performance of buildings (General criteria and validation procedure) NCM (National Calculation Method)

IES TAS Hevacomp

Compliance checking

Results ?

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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How do results from different tools compare?

Guidance stated in NCM:
Certain advanced building features are currently not well represented in SBEM. It is difficult to give absolute rules about when SBEM can and cannot be used, but as broad guidance, the results of using SBEM are likely to be less robust if the building and its systems have features that are not already included in iSBEM (or for which acceptable approximations have not been demonstrated) have properties that vary non-linearly over periods of the order of an hour In such cases, an accredited simulation tool will need to be used to demonstrate compliance. The following are building features that iSBEM /SBEM does not represent very well at present. If these are significant in respect of the performance of the proposed building, then an alternative approved tool should be used. Night ventilation strategy Ventilation with enhanced thermal coupling to structure Demand-controlled ventilation Variable speed pumping Automatic blind control

Light transfer between highly glazed internal spaces such as atria or lightwells

Scottish Energy Systems Group

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Thanks for your attention.

Scottish Energy Systems Group

www.sesg.strath.ac.uk