Use of BESTEST procedure to improve a building thermal simulation program

TL;DR

This paper discusses applying the BESTEST procedure to validate and improve a building thermal simulation program by identifying bugs and assessing heat transfer models.

Contribution

It demonstrates how BESTEST can be used to detect errors and validate models in building energy simulation software.

Findings

Identification of bugs in the simulation program

Validation of heat transfer conduction models

Improved reliability of the simulation results

Abstract

Validation of building energy simulation programs is of major interest to both users and modellers. To achieve such a task, it is essential to apply a methodology based on a priori test and empirical validation. A priori test consists in verifying that models embedded in a program and their implementation are correct. this should be achieved before carrying out experiments. The aim of this report is to present results from the application of the BESTEST procedure to our code. We will emphasise the way it allows to find bugs in our program and also how it permits to qualify models of heat transfer by conduction