Category Archives: EnergyPlus

EnergyPlus

OpenStudio Release v.0.4.0

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On June 24th NREL released version 0.4.0 of the OpenStudio suite of tools for analysis and development. Release note below. DOE/NREL’s newest version of OpenStudio suite of tools and SDK, Version 0.4.0, was released on June 24, 2011. Included in this release is a new Application called the Policy Analysis Tool as well as bug fixes and new features related to OpenStudio and its applications. See Downloads for further details. Release notes can be found here. Keep an eye out for showcase of new features on NREL’s OpenStudio YouTube Channel Enjoy!

Radiance and OpenStudio?

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Boy, these stories keep getting better. I saw a thread over at the NREL OpenStudio Discusison board about how they are working on integrating Radiance into OpenStudio (partially integrated already aparently). This looks quit promissing since it provides another layer to the “platform” possibly eliminating the need to add ‘yet another building simulation tool’ or YABST, to model your buildings. If OpenStudio took my direction and changed their name to OpenStudioSuite then we could have a good acronym for OSS (One Stop Shop). Here is a snippet from the thread located here: NREL is planning to roll out a cross platform Radiance dashboard that will have nightly builds of Radiance installers for Windows, MacOS and Linux; these will be rolled into OpenStudio installers as well, so future release installers of OpenStudio will install OpenStudio, EnergyPlus AND Radiance for you, regardless of what platform you use. If any of the readers are Radiance users, please check out these Ruby scripts and report back. In the meantime I will try this out on my own with low expectations for myself.

The Holy Grail: Energyplus GUI with BIM Integration?

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Could it be? The eQuest killer? The death of Trane Trace? Is this the long awaited graphical interface for Energyplus? After seeing some recent rumors stirring in some of the building simulation circles about a new GUI for Energyplus, I got to doing some digging on the web and came across this presentation by Philip Haves of LBNL. After reading through this presentation, which I’ll get to in a bit and realizing that Philip Haves is going to be speaking at the upcoming ASHRAE Energy Modeling: Tools for Designing High Performance Buildings Conference where interestingly enough a mysterious EPGUI tool will be showcased, it seems we may be on the brink of what was once thought to be only fairy tales. According to the presentation titled “Development of a GUI for EnergyPlus” LBNL has been working with a DOE funded team in creating a brand new GUI for Energyplus aimed at not only being simple and intuitive but also extremely effective and scalable. The development team includes: * LBNL * Infosys * Digital Alchemy * Arup * GARD * Taylor Engineering Some of the key features worth noting are: * Integration with BIM and CAD * SketchUp style geometry creation … Continue reading →

NREL Releases New OpenStudio Software Suite

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With all my enthusiasm of OpenStudio you would think that I am up to date on new releases of the plugin, however it appears the folks over at NREL are a bit shy and don’t make flashy announcements the likes of say Apple Inc. Well it seems around the end of last year NREL released v0.3 of their OpenStudio suite of tools. With this release OpenStudio is no longer a stand alone plugin for Google SketchUp. The installation now contains the following applications: * Plug-in for Google SketchUp * ModelEditor * ResultsViewer * RunManager * SystemOutliner * ProjectEditor (coming soon) I would have been happy with just a new release of the SketchUp plugin, but with this new suite of tools I am thrilled to see hints of the direction NREL is taken with tools that work with and along side of Energyplus. I plan on doing a full review of each new application and hopefully some tutorials as well. In the meantime here is a brief rundown on the features of each application included in the suite. Plug-in for Google Sketchup The workhorse of the suite, this one has been featured on the site quite a bit, and is … Continue reading →