Methodology to estimate building energy consumption using EnergyPlus Benchmark Models

The evaluation of building energy consumption usually requires building energy profiles on an hourly basis. Computer simulations can be used to obtain this information but generating simulations requires a significant amount of experience, time, and effort to enter detailed building parameters. This paper presents a simple methodology to estimate hourly electrical and fuel energy consumption of a building by applying a series of predetermined coefficients to the monthly energy consumption data from electrical and fuel utility bills. The advantage of having predetermined coefficients is that it relieves the user from the burden of performing a detailed dynamic simulation of the building. The coefficients provided to the user are obtained by running EnergyPlus Benchmark Models simulations; thus, the simulation process is transparent to the user. The methodology has been applied to a hypothetical building placed both in Atlanta, GA, and in Meridian, MS, and in both cases, errors obtained for the estimated hourly energy consumption are mainly within 10%.

Research highlights▶ The developed methodology provides a simple way to estimate hourly energy consumption using energy consumption information from utility bills. ▶ The coefficients used in the methodology are obtained by running EnergyPlus Benchmark Models simulations; thus, the simulation process is transparent to the user. ▶ The methodology has been applied to a hypothetical building placed both in Atlanta, GA, and in Meridian, MS, and in both cases, errors obtained for the estimated hourly energy consumption are within 10%.