Introduction of a new validation scenario for building energy simulation tools based on measurement data

Within the ANNEX 58 “Reliable Building Energy Performance Characterisation Based on Full Scale Dynamic Measurements“ [1] of the “Energy in Buildings and Communities“ (EBC) program of the “International Energy Agency“ (IEA) different scenarios for the validation of Building Energy Simulation (BES) tools are developed. The required measurements are conducted on the two identical Twin Houses of the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP. These two buildings have a high thermal mass and are located in southern Germany, between the city of Munich and the Alps. The purpose of these campaigns is to provide highly accurate measurement data and documentation for the quality assurance of simulation programs. This scenario is intended to be used for commercial software like TRNSYS and WUFI® Plus but also for commonly used research and non-commercial tools like ESPr and EnergyPlus. The validation data can also be applied on simplified approaches like lumped capacity and capacity-resistance (RC) models. This publication gives an overview over the experimental design and focuses on collected measurement data and on the differences between the three single scenarios.