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EnergyPlus Utilities

EnergyPlus comes with several utilities to help create input files and run simulations, including IDF Editor and EP-Launch.

EP-Launch

EP-Launch provides a simpler alternative for running EnergyPlus than batch files. EP-Launch allows the user to select the input file directly or from a list of recent or sample files. It also allows easy selection for weather data files. After the EnergyPlus run completes, EP-Launch reports if any errors or warnings occurred. In addition, EP-Launch acts as a file manager for each run and can help open a text editor for any of the input and output files, opens spreadsheet for several results files, and starts up a viewer for the building drawing file.

IDF Editor

For users who want a simple way of creating or editing EnergyPlus input data files (IDF), IDF Editor provides this service. Any EnergyPlus object may be viewed and edited using a spreadsheet-like grid. For inputs with several options, a list is provided. When a numeric input has a range of valid values, those values are displayed. It also automatically provides a list of object names when an object needs to be linked to another. By displaying all objects of the same kind next to each other in a grid, it is easy to see how inputs are different across the building. The IDF Editor outputs an EnergyPlus input file with proper syntax and comments to help the user understand the input values. In addition, the IDF Editor converts standard inch-pound units into SI units compatible with EnergyPlus.

EP-Compare

EP-Compare allows direct comparison of the tabular results from multiple EnergyPlus simulations. Two or more files can be directly compared using bar graphs, stacked bar graphs, side-by-side graphs, and monthly lines graphs. The graphs are based on the tables shown using the tabular report option in EnergyPlus. The long list of graphs available represents values from every tabular report generated by EnergyPlus. Since monthly tabular results can be user-defined for any variable in EnergyPlus, EP-Compare provides one method to compare any result values generated by the simulation. In addition, the graphs shown can be copied to be placed in other documents. It may be used on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh systems.