Automatic Calibration of a Building Energy Simulation Model Using a Global Optimization Program

Abstract

A simulation model used to analyze the energy performance of an existing building should be calibrated to measured consumption data from the building so the simulation output closely follows the measured time series energy consumption data and shows the same temperature dependence. This paper has used optimization software to show that a simple simulation program which is a coding of the ASHRAE 'Simplified Energy Analysis Procedure' can be automatically calibrated to “measured” data. The “measured data” used in this case study was simulation data to which a small amount of white noise had been added.