Conceptual design tool focused on making whole-building tradeoffs during early design phases for buildings that are less than 10,000 ft2 floor area, or buildings which can be treated as one or two-zone increments. Performs whole-building energy analysis for 8760 hours/year, including dynamic thermal and daylighting calculations. Specifically designed to facilitate the evaluation of energy-efficient building features in the very early stages of the design process.
Keywords
conceptual design, residential buildings, small commercial buildings
Validation/Testing
N/A
Expertise Required
Moderate level of computer literacy required; two days of training advised.
Users
More than 3,200 users worldwide.
Audience
Building designers, especially architects; also HVAC engineers, utility companies, university schools of architecture and architectural engineering.
Input
Only 4 inputs required to generate two initial generic building descriptions. Virtually everything is defaulted but modifiable. User adjusts descriptions as the design evolves, using fill-in menus, including utility-rate schedules, construction details, materials.
Output
Summary table and 20 graphical outputs available, generally comparing current design with base case. Detailed tabular results also available.
Computer Platform
PC-compatible, Windows 3.1/95/98/2000, Pentium processor with 32 megabytes of RAM is recommended.
Programming Language
Visual C++
Strengths
Fast, easy-to-use, accurate. Automatic generation of base cases and energy-efficient alternate building descriptions; automatic application of energy-efficient features and rank-ordering of results; integration of daylighting thermal effects with thermal simulation; menu display and modification of all building-description and other data.
Weaknesses
Limited to smaller buildings and HVAC systems that are most often used in smaller buildings.
Contact
Availability
Additional information and examples also on the Energy-10 web site (http://www.nrel.gov/buildings/energy10.html).
Current Release -- Version 1.8. Offers many new features including:
- Photovoltaic module that provides the ability to model and simulate the performance of a PV system that is either stand-alone or integrated with the building.
- Solar Domestic Hot Water module provides a new solar domestic/service hot water modeling capability.
- A new library ("ASHRAELIB") is included defining constructions (wall, roof, window, etc.) as spelled out in ASHRAE 90.1-2004.
$325 ($276.25 SBIC members), $75 student/faculty ($63.75 SBIC members), from contact. Private sector and academic site licenses available.
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