dc.description.abstract | This book is intended to provide advanced undergraduate and graduate students
with an introduction to the topic of building energy modeling, simulation, analysis,
and optimization. It is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of fluid
mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer and is prepared to apply those
fundamentals to more complex systems. The authors believe that this book will also
be of value to energy efficiency professionals who are actively engaged in improving
the built environment.
A number of software tools exist to model and simulate individual buildings, and
many of the concepts discussed in this text are applicable to them. That said, the
authors have structured this book around an open-source platform called OpenStudio
and its underlying EnergyPlus simulation engine. OpenStudio is intended to
facilitate the creation of many tools that make use of energy simulation to enable
decision-making by diverse stakeholders at each stage of a building’s lifecycle. The
platform contains a number of attributes unique to energy modeling including an
object-oriented data model, extensible scripting, and an analytical framework that
scales from individual buildings up to portfolios. The reader will experience these
and other features of OpenStudio and EnergyPlus throughout the book using a pair
of example applications built with the platform.
Instructors should find the material organized in a sequence that slowly builds in
complexity, enabling students to gain fundamental knowledge while applying new
skills as they progress. To that end, each chapter concludes with one or more
“checkpoint” exercises, so-named because they generally result in a usable model
that is built upon in a subsequent exercise. The authors consider the checkpoint
exercises as integral to the book’s content, and we strongly urge students to work
through them in their entirety.
While we believe the exercises are organized in the most appropriate order,
instructors can elect to have students work through checkpoints one and three before
proceeding to checkpoints two, four, and onwards without impacting prerequisites
for subsequent chapters. It is really up to the instructor’s preference as to whether
they wish to maintain student focus on rudiments or begin mixing in sophisticated
applications that expand on those fundamentals more rapidly. | en_US |