DOE Releases
Updates of EnergyPlus and OpenStudio
During the last week of March,
DOE—working with a group of national
labs and contractors—released regularly
scheduled updates of its open-source,
cross-platform whole-building energy
modeling tools, the EnergyPlus engine
and the OpenStudio software development
kit and application.
EnergyPlus V8.5 includes the following
new features:
- Improved sizing for pumps and reheat
coils
- Improved economizer integration for
multi-speed coils
- New ASHRAE single-zone VAV
fan-control
- Electric storage controls
- Significant speedups for daylighting
calculations in large models
During
the 2015-2016 fiscal year, the
EnergyPlus development team is
focusing on improving robustness and
execution speed and on internal code
restructuring to help with
maintenance, testing, and future
performance improvements. EnergyPlus
V8.5 includes fixes for over 90 bugs
and issues. With V8.5, the EnergyPlus
open-source licensing scheme has been
simplified. EnergyPlus is now
distributed under the standard BSD-3
license.
Whereas
EnergyPlus updates are released twice
a year, OpenStudio updates are
released quarterly.
OpenStudio
V1.11 new features include:
- Application
support for dual-duct system layout
- Application
support for construction inheritance
These
complement features were introduced in
V1.10, released in December 2015:
- Compatibility
with SketchUp 2016
- Support
for additional HVAC equipment types
and systems
- Application
support for grid view
- Improved
Radiance integration
OpenStudio
V1.11 also supports EnergyPlus V8.5,
marking the first time OpenStudio has
supported the EnergyPlus version upon
the latter’s release. DOE plans to
continue this practice into the
future.
EnergyPlus
and OpenStudio are available for
download from energyplus.net and openstudio.net. DOE encourages
user involvement in the planning and
prioritization of new features and bug
fixes for EnergyPlus and OpenStudio
via the main sites’ Feedback tabs and
at energyplus.uservoice.com and openstudio.uservoice.com. All four sites
are accessible using the energyplus.net single sign-on.
Learn
more about DOE's Building Energy
Modeling program.
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