Sustainable Building Technical Manual - Etn-presco.net

The systems module simulates the operation of secondary HVAC distribution systems,incorporating outside-air requirements and operating and control schedules. Multiplesystem options are provided. The plant component of the program simulates the operationof a building’s HVAC systems, including conventional central plants and plants withon-site generation, waste-heat recovery, and electricity sell-back.The economics section of the program analyzes the cost of a building’s energy sourcesand calculates the present value of the building’s life-cycle costs including fuel, electricity,equipment, operations, and maintenance. These features are very useful in determiningthe costs of different design and renovation alternatives and calculating of utilityrebate incentives.BLASTThe U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (USACERL) developedthe Building Loads Analysis and System Thermodynamics (BLAST) system to helpdesigners calculate building loads and select the optimal HVAC system for a building.The BLAST family is a comprehensive set of computer programs that create energy models,perform energy analyses, and predict energy system performance and life-cycle costin buildings.Specific programs in the BLAST family, in addition to BLAST itself, include: BTEXT, aBLAST input pre-processor; LCCID, the Life-Cycle Cost in Design program; SOLFEAS, asolar feasibility program; WTHRPT, weather data reporting; and REPWRT, a report writerfor BLAST data. There are other supporting programs as well, such as comfort reportingon an annual basis and assisting in defining inputs for their chillers, heat pumps, andother equipment. The BLAST Support Office (BSO) was established at the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Mechanical Engineering, to provide strategicsupport for users of the BLAST family of programs.SERI-RESSERI-RES is a general purpose thermal analysis program for residential and small commercialbuildings. It was developed by a team from the National Renewable EnergyLaboratory (NREL) and Ecotope Group for use by architects, engineers, consultants,building researchers, building code officials, utility analysts, and others. The method ofanalysis used in the program is simulation. A thermal model of the building is createdby the user and translated into mathematical form by the program. The equations arethen solved repeatedly at time intervals of one hour or less for the period of simulation,usually one year. The program allows the user great flexibility in choosing the level ofdetail to be used in modeling a building. It can be used in a quick and cursory way toevaluate general options at low cost and, at a later stage, to perform detailed analysis ofthe final design.The program is meant to have enough generality to accurately model almost all residentialbuildings and most small commercial buildings. It is particularly suitable for theanalysis of various types of passive solar buildings. Special provisions are made for theanalysis of attached sunspaces, thermostatically controlled fans, rockbin thermal storage,and vented Trombe walls.