Load and Energy Use Simulations for Buildings

Catalog description

This course provides students with fundamental knowledge and an understanding of the methods and computational tools used in predicting and determining energy use of whole buildings and important subsystems. Load and energy use simulation content includes: conduction, convection, and radiation heat transfer physics as applied to buildings; Heat-Balance Method for transient load and energy calculations; application of commercial modeling software; analysis, interpretation, and verification of model results; and an introduction to data-driven modeling approaches. Course material is introduced and reinforced through hands-on modeling assignments, and larger concepts are motivated through in-depth individual and team modeling projects. By the end of the course, students will be able to: quantitatively compare and contrast building designs through load and energy simulations; identify and mathematically delineate the principal conductive, radiative, and convective heat transfer processes in building heating and cooling load assessment; identify, collect, and organize all of the initial conditions data required for the mathematical simulation of the building operation demand loads and calculation of the energy required to operate the building systems; identify and quantify the internal and envelope related cooling and heating loads; determine the subsystem (lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling, occupant equipment) energy use components associated with internal and envelope related loads; and indicate the energy use measurements required to establish an inverse model of building load and energy utilization for forward model simulation reconciliation.