Calibration Procedure for Energy Performance Simulation of a Commercial Building

Abstract

Calibration of an energy simulation with actual data has generally been considered too difficult to be part of the energy audit procedure. The purpose of this paper is to develop a systematic method using a “base load analysis approach” to calibrate a building energy performance model with a combination of monthly utility billing data and sub-metered data such as is commonly available in large buildings in Korea. The calibration procedure was specifically developed to be suitable for use in both the audit and savings determination procedure within a retrofit process. The procedure has been visualized using a logical flow chart and demonstrated using the simulation of a 26-story commercial building located in Seoul as a case study. The results indicate that the approach developed provided a reliable and accurate simulation of the monthly and annual building energy requirements of the case study building.