/Department of the Built Environment

/Unit Building Physics and Services

7LY3M0 Building performance and energy systems simulation

Concept Script 2.1

Name Student A: Giulia Leghissa
Name Student B: Puji Sri Ningsih
Date: 14/09/2016

/Department of the Built Environment

/Unit Building Physics and Services

7LY3M0 Building performance and energy systems simulation

Week 2 Concept 2.1

Action: Describe the difference between white-box, grey-box and black-box
modeling approaches. Explain to which category IES VE belongs, and give
characteristics and typical application examples of each modeling approach.
Student A:
For the prediction and analysis of energy consumptions and performances in
buildings, there is a wide range of methodologies available. In addition, in
literature there are also different terminologies or classifications for the same
type of approach [1]. One of these classifications categorise performance
evaluation methodologies in black-box, white-box and grey-box models.
The white-box approach is based on computer simulations and it usually gives
the most accurate results. It is used even for the most complex buildings or if
high accuracy is needed for a specific problem, especially in a dynamic system
(for example for the study of airflow, lighting systems or HVAC system design).
Despite this, it has also some drawbacks, namely the big amount of details
needed for a good simulation, the high number of iterations to achieve a good
level of confidence and the dependence of the results on the skills of the users
(which can lead to the Performance Gap, as was first pointed out in the late 1990s
by CIBSE [1]). One example of the white-box modelling approach is IES VE, a
performance analysis software used for dynamic simulations.
On the other hand, the black-box model (sometimes called top-down or deductive
method) is purely statistical and its results depend mostly on the datasets
available. For this approach large volumes of data are needed and therefore is
usually implemented when big amounts of databases of different building
assessments are accessible. It has the advantage of a short development time and
it is useful to evaluate performances in different types of buildings at the same
time (for example banks, hospitals, hotels, schools); in contrast, beside needing
lots of statistical data, it has the disadvantage of lacking the relation to physical
phenomena, which leads to difficulties in the interpretation of results and in the
identification of errors.
Li and Wen (2014) [1] established that comparing the white, black and grey -box
modelling approaches, the grey-box was the best since simple engineering models
are at the same time effective and have a rapid computation time. This approach
combines some statistical models with engineering calculations and is especially
useful when brief calculations are sufficient for a good analysis. The grey-box
models are usually a good tool at early stages of the design of a building or for

estimations of total energy demands, when complex interactions and dynamic

approaches are not taken into account.
The use of a specific modelling approach mostly depends on the data available,
on time and other resources needed and on the purpose of the analysis, as
explained by Leaman and colleagues (2001) [1].
Student B:
Mechanical or white box models use physical laws, conservation relations, and
established physical and chemical relations. This system can predict the
behaviour of the system to a large extent. White box model is the case when a
model is perfectly known.
Black box models have highly parametrized structure. Hence, an input-output
map can be realized. It is not guaranteed that black box model can predict system
behaviour outside defined domain. Black box model is used when the chosen
model structure is similar to one having good flexibility and have been successful
in the past, but no physical insight is available.
Grey box model is also called as hybrid model. Grey box model is developed to
minimize cost of extra experiments and research of unknown process. It is
intended to improve the computational efficiency. It is a combination of
mechanistic (first principle) and black box (empirical) model. Each knowledge in
mechanistic part is used as white box part while the black box part is used to add
missing information that could not be found in the white box part. It is also
defined as a case when some physical insight is available, but several parameters
need to be determined from observed data. As an example, grey box is suitable
for physical and semi physical modelling.

Figure 1. Conventional grey-box model identification.

Student A and B:
Analysing each references, it was clear that different papers and articles uses
different kind of terminologies to refer to the same type of approach. This may
sometimes lead to misinterpretation of what the differences of the methodologies
truly are.
Comparing the three articles, we found that the white-box model uses physical
information (such as for example conductivity, resistance, weather etc.), which
are known values and are used for the simulation of a specific problem (one
3

example of this model is IES). The white box is usually highly accurate, but it's
disadvantage is that the results highly depends on how detail the information is
and how skilled the user is.
Black box methodology is statistical and therefore needs a lot of data. If these
data are not available, then the users need to make certain assumptions which
can lead to errors. Another disadvantage of this approach is the fact that it does
not give any physical insight, thus it is difficult to determine errors a-priori,
without doing proper empirical measurement.
Grey methodology is a combination of white and black box approach. Therefore it
includes some physical insights on the phenomena and the relations between
data that is used for the prediction and the real physical parameters.
White box is used when detailed information is required, as for example when
calculating heat transfer through a faade by using the conductivity, resistance,
thickness and other material specifications. Black-box is mostly used when users
wants to do evaluations on a bigger scale, for example when the want to predict
the performance in different types of building at the same time. It could be also
useful when we have a lot of data from a building and we want to evaluate
another building which is similar to the first one. The grey box is used when both
physical data and certain amount of datasets are available, but it also requires
certain inputs that may not be available and therefore has to be assumed. It is a
good model for a quick and effective analysis (such as calculations of heat losses
on an annual basis).
References:
1. E.H. Borgstein, R. Lamberts, J.L.M. Hensen, Evaluating energy
performance in non-domestic buildings: A review, Energy and Buildings,
Volume 128, 15 September 2016, Pages 734-755
2. R. Romijna, L. zkanb, S. Weilandc, J. Ludlageb, W. Marquardta, A greybox modeling approach for the reduction of nonlinear systems, Journal of
Process Control, Volume 18, Issue 9, October 2008, Pages 906914
3. J. Sjoberg et al., Nonlinear black box modelling in system identification: a
unified overview, Automatica, Volume 31, 1995, Pages 1691 1724