Conference Paper

Proceedings of Building Simulation 2021: 17th Conference of IBPSA

Whole building validation for simulation programs including synthetic users and heating systems: experiment and results

Matthias Kersken ¹, Paul Strachan ^2
1 Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP, Germany
² Energy Systems Research Unit, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2021.30595
Abstract: A comprehensive validation of numerous Building Energy Simulation (BES) tools and the validation dataset including experimental specifications is presented. Most published validation cases focus on component level, simple test boxes or use simplified boundary conditions. This study comprises different experimental periods, featuring different levels of detail under realistic boundary conditions. The dataset created was given to 13 modelling teams (mostly IEA EBC Annex 71 participants) in a two-step validation method intended to separate user from program errors. The results of the teams’ predictions were systematically analysed and compared to the measurements. Stratification was found to be important, but in general, the number of submodels required to represent the chosen experimental scenarios makes it hard correlate particular modelling approaches with predictive accuracy. It is conjectured that the maximum complexity for empirical validation has been approached.
Keywords: Empirical Validation, Validation Dataset, Heating Systems, Stochastic Occupancy
Pages: 1789 - 1796
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