A Calibration Methodology for Retrofit Projects Using Short-Term Monitoring and Disaggregated Energy Use Data

Abstract

This paper presents an improved methodology to calibrate energy simulation models to better represent the actual energy use breakdowns in existing buildings. The goal of this methodology is to help architects and engineers accurately determine the current energy use and identify any energy-related problems in the building before proposing the retrofit design solutions, without conducting long-term monitoring. The methodology includes procedures to conduct systematic data collection, "on-off' tests to determine the power densities of the electrical loads, up to four weeks of building energy monitoring to derive the energy use profiles and temperature settings, and disaggregation of the measured energy use data. The procedures also utilize the monthly utility billing records and site weather data. The calibration to the measured data is done on both hourly and monthly basis. The procedures are built into a computer program and integrated with previously developed simulation software. The user interface of the program includes guidelines to help the user decide which simulation input variable has to be altered in order to match the measured data. It also produces graphical outputs to help in visualizing the results, and several guidelines to help study different retrofit strategies after the model has been calibrated.