ESP-r hold many attributes that apply to the whole of the
model in the model configuration file. Some entries have
been included to ensure that user can reliably use models
at a later date and that critical information no longer
scribbled onto notes that so easily get lost.
Site Entities
design team contact details - a text field
project address - a text field
latitude degrees, longitude degrees difference from
the local time meridian (to the origin of the origin of the
model cartesian coordinates).
model wind exposure (urban, suburban, rural)
typical exposure to the sky vault and ground plane (urban, suburban, rural)
Global Entities
ground temperature profiles (user defined sets of monthly values)
ground forms (which are exported to Radiance models)
non-thermal bodies other buildings on site (which are exported to Radiance models)
specification of applicable building codes
links to construction documents
lists of information sources
log of assumptions made (a file name)
site photographs (named list of image files)
model QA report (file name)
model documentation (a file name)
Names of databases used by the model (materials, optics,
wind-pressure-profiles, weather, micotoxins, plant components,
complex fenestrations, pre-defined objects.
list of julian calendar day types
julian calendar with day types identified
sets of pre-defined simulation runs (name, startup days, timesteps
per hour for zones, system timesteps per zone timestep, save level,
toggle for hourly averaging of predictions.
title phrase for the model
primary energy conversion factors for gas/electricity/fuel oil
emissions for gas/electricity/fuel oil
Neighborhood models
Simulation models need not represent a single building. In the figure
below a number of houses have been represented thermally and for purposes
of a day time and evening visual assessments. The e2r module does
both normal and false colour images and has a night setting. It would be a simple
extension to also include the electrical power distribution characteristics
of the neighborhood as well.
Simulation parameter sets
The idea of simulation parameter sets is to encode at the planning
stage the various calibration and production assessment runs along
with their critical attributes to aid automated assessments as well
as ensuring that unintended consequences of design decisions are
easily checked.
Each model can hold up to ~30 named parameter sets each of which
contain:
number of startup days
zone solver timesteps per hour
system solver frequency (multiplier of zone solver)
directive for level of performance detail to capture
period of the assessment
file names for each solution domain performance data (zone, system,
mass flow, electrical power, moisture, CFD)
