Energy Simulation And Optimized Retrofit Practices Applied To A Real Dwelling

Energy simulation and optimized retrofit practices applied to a real dwelling Giulia Marinello(a), Stephen L. Caskey(a), Eric J. Bowler(b), and Eckhard A. Groll(a) (a) Purdue University, School of Mechanical Engineering, ?Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA (b)Whirlpool Corporation, Benton Harbor, MI 49022, USA Abstract According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, residential housing units account for 20.9% of the total energy usage in the U.S., causing 20.8% of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions. The average age of a single family home in the US is 34 years. These aging dwellings were built in a time when energy was cheap and carbon dioxide emission was not considered pollution. Therefore, these houses typically do not contain many energy efficiency measures. The practice of house retrofitting represents a huge source of energy saving. Although there are some general fundamental rules on how to retrofit a house, many different improvements can be applied and the optimum solution is normally based on the previous conditions of the house and on the climate zone where the house is located. In the past few years, many, increasingly sophisticated, software solutions able to provide energy modeling of a residential building have been developed. In this paper, a typical 1950s vintage residential house located in West Lafayette, Indiana, is taken as a case study. The aim is to combine the results obtained from two different energy simulation engines and compare them with real time energy usage data before and after the retrofit. The software tools used are BEOpt and Ecotect. BEOpt was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is able to run optimization analyses and provide an indication on the most cost-effective improvements that can be done. Ecotect is based on Autodesk and is able to provide a more accurate energy analysis based on a 3D model of the house developed in Revit. The aim is to run an optimization analysis with BEOpt to identify the best retrofit practices for the case study and use the results to run a more accurate energy analysis in Ecotect. The results of the energy simulation can then be compared with real data thanks to the instrumentation system installed in the aforementioned house. The parameters monitored are the electricity consumption of every circuit, gas consumption, water consumption, and water temperature after the usage. Data from the house will be stored for a year to create a baseline scenario. The suggestions given by the energy simulation will be used to inform actual retrofit actions, which will be put in place during the summer of 2014. This study is part of a larger research project called the NEWW House, a collaboration between Whirlpool Corporation and Purdue University. The overall goal is to retrofit the residential building in order to create a net-zero energy and water house