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

New Features

Highlights of this release (V8.0.0.008)

The highlights – improved and new features – are displayed by category.

General

  • Speed improvements and many bug fixes throughout.

Datasets

  • Weather files (EPW) from TMY3 now have corrected illuminance data.
  • Updated life cycle costing price escalation data.

Input

  • Added support for sub-hourly values and interpolation for schedules that are input using a file (Schedule:File object).
  • Added two new fuel type input options (OtherFuel1 & OtherFuel2) to all components that specify the type of fuel, for general use when modeling alternative energy sources, such as wood or other biofuels.

Zone and Surface Models

  • Added option to choose timestep-integrated calculations for solar, shading, and daylighting for use with dynamic facade controls.

Natural and Mechanical Ventilation

  • Expanded AirFlow Network support for hybrid modeling to include VAV air handlers.

HVAC and Refrigeration

  • A new general-purpose plant heat exchanger model (HeatExchanger:FluidToFluid) was added for coupling and controlling all kinds of plant loops and modeling multiple secondary loops (replaces HeatExchanger:WatersideEconomizer, HeatExchanger:Hydronic, and HeatExchanger:Plate which have been removed).
  • New multispeed AC Furnace for high-SEER with multistage gas or electric heating coil (AirLoopHVAC:UnitaryHeatPump:AirToAir:MultiSpeed).
  • New central chiller heater system for applications such as ground source heat pump systems.
  • New plant model object (PlantComponent:TemperatureSource) for a known temperature source of supply fluid, such as for river, well, or seawater once through cooling.
  • Improved electric chiller condenser heat recovery modeling to include autosizing, capacity limits, inlet temperature limit, outlet temperature control, and improved chiller models to account for higher rejection temperatures.
  • Added support for variable speed DX coils to be used with CoilSystem:Heating:DX and CoilSystem:Cooling:DX.
  • Improved the equation-fit, single-speed, water-to-air heat pump models to include new options for cycling or constant fluid flow operation.
  • The single-speed DX cooling coil model was improved to allow the option of defining performance curves for the sensible heat ratio (SHR) during operation to support 100% outdoor air systems and other low-SHR applications.
  • The zone exhaust fan model was improved to allow varying flow rates, controlling on a minimum temperature limit, selecting how availability managers behave and declaring what portion of makeup air is balanced.
  • Added calculation and reporting of standard ratings for HSPF and Net Heating Capacity for multi-speed air to air heat pump (Coil:Heating:DX:MultiSpeed).
  • Added HVACTemplate support for detailed outdoor air specifications.
  • Improved low temperature radiant hydronic systems to include options for tubing circuit length sizing calculation and multiple tubing circuits.
  • Improved horizontal trench ground heat exchanger object with simpler interface to piping system objects.

Controls and User Functions

  • New Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) capability for EnergyPlus itself to be exported as an FMU for co-simulation.
  • Improved capabilities for random number operations in EnergyPlus Runtime Language programs for EMS.

Output

  • Throughout the program the specific names used to describe output variables were completely overhauled to be clearer, to use consistent terminology, and to use the same names across similar components.
  • New XML style option for all tabular reports.
  • New LEED summary predefined tabular report.
  • New ZoneComponentLoadSummary predefined report that estimates the load components during a sizing period for each zone using a pulse/decay curve method.

Utilities

  • IDF Editor – Added FILL RIGHT function to copy values from left most column selected to those to the right of it similar to the fill right function in spreadsheets.
  • IDF Editor – Added JUMP menu item to jump to other fields in other objects that use the same name as the currently selected field.
  • Weather Converter – Design day idf/imf snippets for annual and monthly design conditions as contained in ASHRAE HOF 2009 were posted to the helpdesk.

Documentation and Guides

  • Documentation has been updated for all documents.

Platforms

  • Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8) 32 and 64 bit versions
  • Linux (Ubuntu 12.04 and compatible) 32 and 64 bit versions; RHEL 5.0 compatible available on request via helpdesk.
  • Mac (10.7 and 10.8) 64 bit versions
  • EnergyPlus V8.0 has been tested on all of these platforms
  • EnergyPlus does intensive computations, for high performance, computers should have a lot of memory and fast hard disk speeds.

And many other enhancements and speed improvements throughout.