An enhanced linear regression-based building energy model (LRBEM+) for early design |
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Authors: | Maged Al Gharably S. Ranji Ranjithan |
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Affiliation: | 1. PPMG Consultants, 11063 Cloverland Ave, Baton Rouge, LA 70809, USA;2. Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA |
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Abstract: | The design community lacks simple, data-driven energy assessment tools to explore energy-efficient alternatives during the early stages of building design. A promising option is to utilize a whole building energy simulation engine (e.g. EnergyPlus) within a Monte Carlo simulation framework to develop a linear regression-based building energy model (LRBEM) that can predict idealized heating and cooling loads based on parameters relevant to early design. Previous work was limited to medium-sized US commercial office buildings with rectangular geometries. A key limitation is addressed in this paper by considering complex geometries. A reformulated model, LRBEM+, is developed and tested with a suite of building geometries that represent limiting cases. The resultant relative error between LRBEM+ and EnergyPlus is generally less than 10%. Furthermore, LRBEM+ correctly predicts the direction and magnitude of changes in heating and cooling loads in response to changes in the most influential early design parameters. |
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Keywords: | EnergyPlus Monte Carlo simulation multivariate regression building geometry |
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