The US Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled its new building energy simulation program, EnergyPlus, designed for modeling buildings with associated heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows. The software is developed for design, construction, and real estate professionals who want to minimize energy use and cost, and optimize building performance.
According to DOE, EnergyPlus builds on the most popular features and capabilities of the agencies BLAST and DOE-2 software, but includes many innovative simulation capabilities including time steps of less than an hour and modular systems simulation modules that are integrated with a heat balance-based zone simulation. Other planned simulation capabilities include solar thermal, multizone airflow, and electric power simulation including photovoltaic systems and fuel cells.
For more information, contact DOE.
