Welcome to EnergyPlus PET’s documentation!

PET as in Parameter Estimation Tool, not a friendly supporter that hangs around ready to help…or maybe both?

Contents:

• Walk-through and forms information
  • Main Form
  • Equipment Preview Form
  • Correction Factor Summary Form
  • Correction Factor Widget Object
  • Correction Factor Details Form
  • Base Data Form
  • Catalog Plot Form
  • Constant (Rated) Parameters Form
  • Data Comparison Plots
  • Basic Message Dialog
• Equipment Documentation
  • Base Equipment Class
  • Water-to-Air Heat Pump Heating Mode Curve Fit
  • Water-to-Air Heat Pump Cooling Mode Curve Fit
  • Water-to-Water Heat Pump Heating Mode Curve Fit
  • Water-to-Water Heat Pump Cooling Mode Curve Fit
  • Column Header Definition (Developer Info)
  • Equipment Type Listing (Developer Info)
  • Equipment Type Manager (Developer Info)
  • Common Curves Collection (Developer Info)
• Adding a New Component Type
• Adding a New Unit Type
• Other Support Modules
  • Correction Factor
  • Catalog Data Manager
  • Exception Classes
  • Application Runner Entry
  • Unit Systems and Values

Indices and tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page

EnergyPlus is a building simulation tool developed by the United States Department of Energy. The simulation program is comprised of dozens of different component models which have been developed over the course of decades. In some cases there are similarities in the model formulation, but in many cases, due to either different assumptions, physics, boundary conditions, etc., component models will have their own formulation.

One difficulty in using the various component models in EnergyPlus is how to consume actual manufacturer’s data and get it into a form usable for EnergyPlus. That’s where this tool is helpful. The long term goal of this tool is to be able to generate EnergyPlus inputs for a wide variety of the component models that exist inside the simulation program. With the critical focus on heat pump deployment in our current time, the first models used in this tool are heat pumps. Over time, other model types will be added.

So how does this tool work? Well, it’s only a few quick steps:

1. Take manufacturer’s data and preferably copy and paste it into a spreadsheet to allow quick and easy data prep

2. With this tool, enter any correction factors for the catalog data

3. Then enter the base data set, with some columns potentially being constant, only to be corrected with factors later

4. Let the tool generate parameters!

This documentation will cover walking through the main form operations, as well as providing developer support for those interested in extending the program or making changes.

Installation

This program should be installed from PyPi using pip install energyplus_pet. Once installed, a new command will be available from that Python environment called energyplus_pet_gui, with a .exe appended on Windows. Run this one time right from the command line where pip was executed to launch the program. For easier access, there is an additional executable right next to the main gui executable. The name is energyplus_pet_configure. Simply execute this binary entry point and it will create a desktop shortcut on Windows, or install a .desktop launcher on Linux, or create an .app bundle on MacOS. After that, the user should be able to launch the program from this icon, or from the system shell/spotlight/searcher/start menu.

To get updates to the program, you simply need to install the latest version using the same pip version, but let pip know that it can upgrade existing package installations: pip install --upgrade energyplus_pet

Developing

If you are curious about the latest code, or want to open an issue or submit a contribution, check out the repo at https://github.com/myoldmoopar/EnergyPlusPET. This will likely soon move to a new location.