Assessing the Energy and Indoor Air Quality Performance for a Three-Story Building Using an Integrated Model, Part One: The Need for Integration

Seyedmohammadreza Heibati, Wahid Maref and Hamed H. Saber
Additional contact information
Seyedmohammadreza Heibati: Construction Engineering Department, École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), University of Quebec, Montréal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada
Wahid Maref: Construction Engineering Department, École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), University of Quebec, Montréal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada
Hamed H. Saber: Mechanical Engineering Department, Jubail University College, Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu, Jubail Industrial City 31961, Saudi Arabia

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: In building applications, there is a dynamic interaction/coupling between the energy performance and the indoor air quality (IAQ) performance. Previously, the performance of energy consumption (EC) and IAQ has been evaluated independently. In this study, an energy performance model (EnergyPlus) and IAQ performance model (CONTAM: contaminant transport analysis) were simultaneously coupled as a new integrated simulation model in which the control variables were exchanged between the two models. Two scenarios were provided in this study for a three-story house. The first scenario addressed the effect of airtightness only. The second scenario, however, addressed the airtightness with an exhaust fan with an upgraded filter. In order to better analyze the accuracy of the simulations, the performance of the energy and IAQ were simulated independently using the EnergyPlus model and CONTAM model. Thereafter, the performance of the energy and IAQ were simulated using the present integrated simulation model. All simulations were conducted for the climatic conditions of Montreal and Miami. The results of the integrated simulation model showed that the exchange of control variables between both EnergyPlus and CONTAM produced accurate results for the performance of both energy and IAQ. Finally, the necessity of using the present integrated simulation model is discussed.

Keywords: integrated simulation model; EnergyPlus; CONTAM; energy consumption; indoor air quality; heat; air and moisture transport (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/24/4775/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/24/4775/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:24:p:4775-:d:298062

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().