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With the release of EnergyPlus 2.1, there's been a very interesting announcement in connection with Google SketchUp and the weather data convertor, which now produces KML output for Google Earth.

A beta version of building simulation within SketchUp is planned n the next few weeks. In the first release in early 2008, users will be able to draw their building, paint the surfaces with thermophysical properties, select default building type information, schedules, and HVAC systems, and simulate the energy performance of their building — all within SketchUp.

WeatherConverter now produces KML output (for Google Earth) of latitude, longitude, elevation, and a few climate statistics for locations in a list processing run.

Several other interfaces are under development—including two from China and India. These are likely to be announced shortly on; http://www.energyplus.gov/ep_interfaces.html

EnergyPlus V 2.1 is now available at no cost from the EnergyPlus web site http://www.energyplus.gov
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As part of a project announced Tuesday, the Internet search leader and its philanthropic arm will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun.

If Google realizes its goal, the cost of solar power should fall by 25 to 50 percent, co-founder Larry Page said in an interview.

"If we achieve these goals, we are going to be in the (electricity) business in a very big way," Page said. "We should be able to make a lot of money from this."

http://www.tech2.com/india/news/general/google-expands-into-alternative-energy/
22785/0?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email

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EnergyPlus "Most Wanted!"

http://gundog.lbl.gov/dirpubs/wanted.pdf

HLCP "Young Turks!"

http://picasaweb.google.com/hlcp.support/HLCPTeam

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A short demo of a GUI for EnergyPlus developed by Gurneet Singh.

http://cbs.iiit.net/resume/2002batch/gurneet/cad/demo/EnergyGSdemo.html

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Dr. Vishal Garg of the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderbad, India, has created an EnergyPlus tutorial aimed at architects and engineers who are familiar with the basic concepts of energy simulation and HVAC systems. The tutorial out-lines the procedures for modeling a small room using EnergyPlus, including instruction on how to run the simulation, and how to interpret the output files. The output presents both heating and cooling energy consumption so the user may experiment with size, orientation, material properties, location, etc., and compare heating/cooling energy usage. End of Post. Read more on this article...

Coming soon.

DesignBuilder CFD has been specifically designed to provide users with a tool that can be used to predict airflow and temperature distribution in and around buildings using the same methods as the general purpose pure CFD packages but at a fraction of the cost and without the need for any specialist knowledge.

Some of the key DesignBuilder CFD features:
3-D CFD grids are generated automatically from model geometry and boundary conditions using algorithms to promote optimal solution convergence.

The CFD engine has been developed around the SIMPLER algorithm, which belongs to one of the most widely used families of CFD solution methods. Turbulence can be modelled using the widely researched and documented k-e model and there are plans to introduce additional models for specific applications.

The interface incorporates tools to enable a wide range of boundary conditions such as supply diffusers, extracts, temperature patches, etc. to be assigned to room surfaces. A component library is also provided to enable radiators, fan-coil units, furniture, occupants, etc. to be located anywhere within the model and automatically incorporated within the analysis.

Boundary conditions can be automatically assigned from a previous EnergyPlus simulation.

3-D CFD results are displayed using the DesignBuilder OpenGL graphics engine providing impressive, easy-to-interpret images and movies of velocity vectors, temperature contours, iso-surfaces, particle streams, etc.

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In the process of working on HLCP, I came across a few utilities which proved to be very useful during testing. These utilities can also be used on the .eso and .dxf files generated for the project by EnergyPlus through the HLCP interface.



xEsoView


xEsoView is a file viewer for Energy+ .eso output files. xEsoView uses the Qwt extension of the Qt toolkit from Trolltech Inc.

http://xesoview.sourceforge.net





DrawEzPlus

DrawEzPlus is a 3-D rendering tool that reads the geometry data in an EnergyPlus input file and uses a set of OpenGL commands to render the building objects. Two key steps are involved. First, the E+ input file is parsed and all vertices data is extracted into a temporary file, organized by type of building object. Second, the temporary file is processed by a set of OpenGL utilities that produce renderings of the 3-D data.

To Download DrawEzPlus 1.1, click here.
Courtesy: The Deringer group

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