Date of Award

Summer 1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Director

A. Sidney Roberts Jr.

Committee Member

Sushil K. Chaturvedi

Committee Member

Robert F. Michel

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E56 C667

Abstract

In the continuing effort to reduce the energy use of buildings, design engineers and architects are called upon to design facilities which are more efficient and use less energy. The prediction of the energy used by a building's systems and occupants, for different design options and combinations, is an important part of the design of an energy efficient building.

An energy use analysis was conducted to determine the accuracy of a computerized building energy analysis simulation when only preliminary design information is available. Additional studies were made to determine the accuracy of the simulation as more detailed design, construction and operational information is available in order to determine the factors which have the most effect on the simulation. The Bachelors Enlisted Quarters at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital complex in Portsmouth, Virginia, was selected as the subject building for this study. The Trace 600 computer program was used to predict the monthly and annual energy use of the building's lighting, heating, air conditioning, ventilation and domestic hot water systems as well as the energy used by the occupants. Measured energy use data, available from the building's direct digital control system, was collected and compared to the results of the energy studies.

The preliminary design model proved to be a poor predictor of the actual energy use of the building. The number of unknowns involved at the early design stage introduced significant error into the energy use simulation. The detailed models yielded considerably more accurate predictions of the energy use of the building. The annual energy use predicted for lighting, occupant, cooling and ventilation systems by the detailed model simulation, was within 2 percent of that measured. Heating energy use was more difficult to predict. The computer simulations were not able to accurately predict heating energy use within any acceptable margin of error. Incomplete or inaccurate information on the building, occupants and/or the dynamics of the building during the heating season may be the cause of the large dispersion between the predicted and the measured heating energy use.

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DOI

10.25777/6p64-6t21

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