International Energy Agency building energy simulation test (BESTEST) and diagnostic method

This is a report on the Building Energy Simulation Test (BESTEST) project conducted by the Model Evaluation and Improvement International Energy Agency (IEA) Experts Group. The group was composed of experts from the Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) Programme, Task 12 Subtask B, and the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems (BCS) Programme, Annex 21 Subtask C. Recognizing that the needs for model evaluation were similar in both IEA programmes, the combined Experts Group was approved by the Executive Committees in 1990. This is the first joint group organized by the respective IEA Executive Committees, and it has resulted in significant cost savings for all participating countries. The objective of this subtask has been to develop practical implementation procedures and data for an overall IEA validation methodology which has been under development by NREL since 1981, with refinements contributed by the United Kingdom. The methodology consists of a combination of empirical validation, analytical verification, and comparative analysis techniques. This report documents a comparative testing and diagnostic procedure for thermal models related to the architectural fabric of the building. Other projects (reported elsewhere) conducted by this group include work on empirical validation, analytical verification, and comparative test cases for commercial buildings. In the BESTEST project, a method was developed for systematically testing whole-building energy simulation programs and diagnosing the sources of predictive disagreement. Field trials of the method were conducted with a number of {open_quotes}reference{close_quotes} programs selected by the participants to represent the best state-of-the-art detailed simulation capability available in the United States and Europe. These included BLAST, DOE2, ESP, SERIRES, S3PAS, TASE, and TRNSYS