NREL releases new version of OpenStudio (0.5.2)

DavidBoulder

It has been a while since I posted about OpenStudio. This is NREL's energy modeling software. In the past it has been mainly a SketchUp Plugin working with the EnergyPlus IDF file format. EnergyPlus is the simulation used to run the simulations from the models. We have expanded it quite a bit. There is still a SketchUp plugin, but there are also a number of stand alone applications. Everything is Mac, Windows, and Linux (expect of course the plugin is only Mac and Windows). We introduced a new OSM file format a few versions ago, but with 0.5.0 have really expanded the model. Users now create spaces which roughly represent rooms, and then gather spaces together to make thermal zones. This allows for improved early design workflows. We are also working integration with other simulation engines, in particular Radiance, but as this is an OpenSource project, others could build integration with other simulation engines as well.

Here is a link to a youtube playlist highlighting some of the new features.
Youtube Video

One of the primary stand alone applications in OpenStudio is SystemOutliner. This is used to create the mechanical systems for the project. Below is a youtube video demonstrating plant loops, which were just introduced.
Youtube Video

Loads are assigned in the SketchUp Plugin by assigning space types to individual spaces. The building envelope of course also influences the loads. Then the thermostat is assigned to each thermal zone defining what the target temperatures are.

Plan view in render by space type
Perspective render by space type
Perspective render by thermal zone
SystemOutliner AirLoop (not part of SketchUp Plugin)

We have a lot more planned for future releases.

David,

--
David Goldwasser, LEED AP
National Renewable Energy Laboratory

DavidBoulder

Just as an update to this post, we just released OpenStudio 0.6.0 at the end of December. This builds on 0.5 by adding more HVAC templates and also adds gbXML import, and a number of user scripts.

Here is a link to a video on the gbXML import.
Youtube Video

We also created a new 101 tutorial series for this release. The old one was very outdated (from 0.3.0).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL647CC3A5AA51AA6B&feature=plcp

Lots of exciting improvements coming in 0.7.0.