Building Simulation for thermal management and energy efficiency

Modern eco house with solar panels and wind turbines and an electric car.

Building simulation

A flexible and open array of solutions for modelling buildings and associated heating and cooling systems is what we offer. The overall solution combines analysis of energy usage, district to localized thermal management and human comfort to assess the performance of new and existing buildings. We are able to quantify the benefits of new building designs as well as evaluating the best energy saving, value for money retrofits to existing buildings.

Open standards

Support for open modelling standards using the Modelica modelling language allows the user to implement emerging technologies when these become available and test them for suitability for their applications.

Energy saving technologies and renewables

Solar panels for heating and domestic hot water as well as high performance storage heating, solar blinds and energy efficient glazing are some of the technologies that we model through the predictive approach. Data for parameterizing the models is available from manufacturers and does not require the customer to be able to bench test the technologies themselves to generate the data.

Predictive HVAC models

Not limited by maps, predictive physical models allow us to explore the benefits of a wider range of system states and evaluate the best control strategies for reduction of energy usage. We are able to model both district and localized systems within the same environment.

High level interfaces using embedded models

The detailed building, heating and cooling models are exported to higher level interfaces such as Microsoft Excel which allows a wider range of people to use the models for energy performance analysis without any knowledge required of the simulation tool used to develop the embedded model.

Python and Java interface

Using the built-in Python and Java interfaces, we can run and control the physical models externally using either of these languages.

FMI import and export

All models can be exported using the Functional Mock-up Interface standard as FMUs (Functional Mock-up Units) into other environments such as Matlab Simulink. The tools we use also support the import of FMUs so that you can couple external models with ours.

Co-simulation tool for hybrid energy system optimisation
In this blog post, I write about a project we supported over the past couple of years involving Buildings thermal management systems modelling with NTU – Nottingham Trent University, UK. In summary: We’re looking to improve the energy efficiency of buildings thermal management, primarily to meet targets on CO2 emissions to reduce the impact on climate change. In order to […]
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Optimising Thermal Management Circuits
This blog post theme was motivated by the increasing trend and interest in thermal management of systems, not only of vehicles but buildings and other applications requiring such systems. The ability to thermally manage a system to allow it to reach and maintain ideal operating temperatures is a complex balance of compromises. On one side you are striving to maintain […]
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Restricted domestic water flow impact on energy consumption
I thought we’d have a look at some interesting non-automotive applications for my next few blog posts. I’ve been meaning to write some for a while. Speaking to one of my colleagues in South Africa I learnt about his area’s reduced domestic water flow in a bid to save water. I was interested to find out what the implications are […]
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