Capabilities¶
ERI Capabilities¶
The following ERI Standards are supported:
- ANSI/RESNET/ICC 301-2014© Standard for the Calculation and Labeling of the Energy Performance of Low-Rise Residential Buildings using an Energy Rating Index
- ANSI/RESNET/ICC 301-2019 Standard for the Calculation and Labeling of the Energy Performance of Dwelling and Sleeping Units using an Energy Rating Index
The following ENERGY STAR programs/versions are supported:
- Single Family, National, v3.2, v3.1, v3.0
- Single Family, Pacific, v3.0
- Single Family, Florida, v3.1
- Single Family, Oregon and Washington, v3.2
- Multifamily, National, v1.2, v1.1, v1.0
- Multifamily, Oregon and Washington, v1.2
The following IECC ERI versions are supported:
- 2015
- 2018
- 2021
The following DOE ZERH versions are supported:
- 1.0
- Single Family, 2.0
Accuracy vs Speed¶
The EnergyPlus simulation engine is like a Swiss army knife. There are often multiple models available for the same building technology with varying trade-offs between accuracy and speed. This workflow standardizes the use of EnergyPlus (e.g., the choice of models appropriate for residential buildings) to provide a fast and easy to use solution.
The workflow is continuously being evaluated for ways to reduce runtime without significant impact on accuracy. A number of such enhancements have been made to date.
There are additional ways that software developers using this workflow can reduce runtime:
- Run on Linux/Mac platform, which is significantly faster by taking advantage of the POSIX fork call.
- Do not use the
--hourly
flag unless hourly output is required. If required, limit requests to hourly variables of interest. - Run on computing environments with 1) fast CPUs, 2) sufficient memory, and 3) enough processors to allow all simulations to run in parallel.
- Avoid using the
--add-component-loads
argument if heating/cooling component loads are not of interest.