PhD Thesis - Energy Systems Research Unit - University of Strathclyde

associated plant systems by simply defining a series of design aspects such as climate,model location (latitude and longitude), building characteristics (geometry, fabric,shading and internal heat gains), HVAC plant networks, plant system controlschemes etc.Fig. 2.1 - ESP-r input and output processThe first aspect in modelling using ESP-r involves modelling the building structureby supplying details regarding the building geometry, location, orientation,surrounding environment, building fabric and shading. Once the building structure isfully defined the user is then required to characterize the internal heat gains insidethe building. This can be done either through a coarse hourly pre-set template or elsethrough a more elaborate system which requires ESP-r to access external datacontaining information on the internal heat gains; this permits the use of finer 129