Building Technologies Program: EnergyPlus

U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Building Technologies Program - EnergyPlus

EnergyPlus models heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows as well as water in buildings. While originally based on the most popular features and capabilities of BLAST and DOE-2, EnergyPlus includes many innovative simulation capabilities such as time steps of less than an hour, modular systems and plant integrated with heat balance-based zone simulation, multizone air flow, thermal comfort, water use, natural ventilation, and photovoltaic systems. A list of features by EnergyPlus version is available.

EnergyPlus is a stand-alone simulation program without a 'user friendly' graphical interface. EnergyPlus reads input and writes output as text files. A number of graphical interfaces are available or under development. Want to try an EnergyPlus simulation without downloading EnergyPlus? Try the EnergyPlus Example File Generator.

Brief comparison of EnergyPlus with its predecessor programs, DOE-2.1E and BLAST. (PDF 254 KB) Download Adobe Reader.

EnergyPlus Awards

Awards presented to EnergyPlus in the last few years.

Real-time Weather Data Available

Hourly weather data from around the world is continuously collected and stored in this database.

University Teaching Material Online

A flexible curriculum is available to professors teaching courses on energy simulation and using EnergyPlus.

EnergyPlus Consultants

Looking for a consultant to perform EnergyPlus simulations? LBNL maintains an up-to-date list of EnergyPlus consultants.

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EnergyPlus Copyright© 1996-2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and The Regents of the University of California through the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
All rights reserved.
EnergyPlus is a trademark of the United States Department of Energy.

U.S. Department of Energy