PluginComfort
The PluginComfort builds upon the PluginEnergyPlus and adds data sets for clothing and activity degrees, as well as the implementation of ISO 7730 / Fanger, EN 15251 (outdated), EN 16798-1, and ASHRAE 55 evaluation.
The implementation of the plugin was also presented in Richter et al. (2023) . This publication also provides details on the derivation of parameters for clothing and activity degrees which are included in the bim2sim_comfort/data/UseConditionsComfort. json template.
How to install?
Please follow the installation instructions of the PluginEnergyPlus .
Step by step
Trouble Shooting
For python > 3.9: make sure that the correct geomeppy is installed (using requirements.txt in the plugin): in this fork of geomeppy, we fixed the imports working from python >= 3.10: https://github.com/BIM2SIM/geomeppy/tree/fix_dependencies
Test install
Structure of the plugin
The structure of the plugin extends the structure of the PluginEnergyPlus . After the general bim2sim BPS preprocessing, the general EnergyPlus setup (IDF setup) is followed by the ComfortSettings and the IDF is updated. Once the EnergyPlus simulation is executed, the setup of the dataframe for result evaluation (CreateResultDF) follows, as well of the plotting of the results ([PlotComfortResults] (comf_plot_results)).
PluginComfort specific tasks:
Comfort specific tasks
Add Comfort Settings
As this plugin for thermal comfort application bases on the PluginEnergyPlus , the comfort settings extend and update the already available settings of the PluginEnergyPlus. The extensions and updates mostly focus on the personal data of occupants, such as clothing and activity degrees. This task starts with the definition of default schedules for clothing, air velocities and work efficiency, which are imported from data/comfort_usage.json. This task further assigns clothing parameters which have been imported from comfort-extended templates based on the TEASER use conditions (see Richter et al. (2023) for further details on the comfort extension). This task also sets the evaluation algorithms for thermal comfort evaluation, which are by default ISO 7730 / Fanger, EN 15251 (outdated), and ASHRAE 55. As EN 15251 is outdated but EnergyPlus does not yet provide comfort analysis according to the EN 16798-1, the results of the EN 16798-1 are calculated in the postprocessing of the plugin.
After setting up the comfort parameters for the occupants, the output variables for comfort analysis are set. In a last step, the resulting EnergyPlus input file (IDF) is cleaned from possible duplicate names and zone references, which increases the robustness of the EnergyPlus simulation.
Create result dataframe for comfort analysis
Go to CreateResultDF This task creates a result dataframe in the same structure as the other plugins.
Plot comfort results
Go to PlotComfortResults This task provides methods to visualize the thermal comfort results. The following plots are available:
Calendar Plot for daily PMV results per zone
EN 16798-1 scatter plots
combined table and bar plots for EN 16798-1 evaluation
More plots are to be added to the plugin. However, all plots can also be generated from the EnergyPlus output csv file, using the tool of your choice (Python/matplotlib, MS Excel, …).