Residential OpenStudio Measures

Unit Test Status:

Code Coverage:

This project includes OpenStudio measures used to model residential buildings.

This project is a work-in-progress. The models are not fully completed nor tested. These measures will eventually be posted on the Building Component Library

Progress is tracked in this spreadsheet.

Setup

To get started, go through the OpenStudio Installation Instructions, including the "Optional - Install Ruby" section. The "Optional - Setup a Building Component Library (BCL) Account" section is recommended but not required.

A number of measures in this GitHub repository share the same resource files, found in the top-level resources directory. In order to run the measures, these resources need to be distributed to each measure. This process has been automated via a rake task (a task defined in the rakefile).

To be able to use the rakefile, follow these steps:

1. Run gem install bundler. (If you get an error, you may have to issue the following: gem sources -r https://rubygems.org/ followed by gem sources -a http://rubygems.org/.)
2. Download DevKit at http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/. Choose either the 32-bit or 64-bit version for use with Ruby 2.0 or above, depending on which version of Ruby you installed. Run the installer and extract to a directory (e.g., C:\RubyDevKit). Go to this directory and run ruby dk.rb init followed by ruby dk.rb install
3. Run bundler

Once setup, you can now run rake update_resources to update the measures' resource files. You will want to perform this task anytime you do a clone or pull of the repository.

You can run rake -T to see the list of possible rake tasks.

New Construction Workflow for Users

The New Construction workflow illustrates how to build up a complete residential building model from an empty seed model. Note that some measures need to be called before others. For example, the Window Constructions measure must be called after windows have been added to the building. The list below documents the intended workflow for using these measures.

* Note: Nearly every measure is dependent on having the geometry defined first so this is not included in the table for readability purposes.

Group	Measure	Dependencies*
1. Location	1. Location
2. Geometry	1. Geometry Single-Family Detached (or Single-Family Attached or Multifamily)
	2. Number of Beds and Baths
	3. Number of Occupants	Beds/Baths
	4. Orientation
	5. Eaves
	6. Door Area
	7. Window Areas
	8. Overhangs	Window Areas
	9. Neighbors
3. Envelope Constructions	1. Ceilings/Roofs - Unfinished Attic Constructions (or Finished Roof)
	2. Ceilings/Roofs - Roof Sheathing
	3. Ceilings/Roofs - Roofing Material
	4. Ceilings/Roofs - Radiant Barrier
	5. Ceilings/Roofs - Ceiling Thermal Mass
	6. Foundations/Floors - Unfinished Basement Construction (or Finished Basement, Crawlspace, Slab, or Pier & Beam)
	7. Foundations/Floors - Interzonal Floor Construction
	8. Foundations/Floors - Floor Covering
	9. Foundations/Floors - Floor Sheathing
	10. Foundations/Floors - Floor Thermal Mass
	11. Walls - Wood Stud Construction (or Double Stud, CMU, etc.)
	12. Walls - Interzonal Construction
	13. Walls - Wall Sheathing
	14. Walls - Exterior Finish
	15. Walls - Exterior Thermal Mass
	16. Walls - Partition Thermal Mass
	17. Uninsulated Surfaces
	18. Window Construction	Window Areas, Location
	19. Door Construction	Door Area
	20. Furniture Thermal Mass
4. Domestic Hot Water	1. Water Heater (Electric Tank, Fuel Tankless, etc.)	Beds/Baths
	2. Hot Water Fixtures	Water Heater
	3. Hot Water Distribution	Hot Water Fixtures, Location
5. HVAC	1. Central Air Conditioner and Furnace (or ASHP, Boiler, MSHP, etc.)
	2. Heating Setpoint	HVAC Equipment, Location
	3. Cooling Setpoint	HVAC Equipment, Location
	4. Ceiling Fan	Cooling Setpoint, Beds/Baths
6. Major Appliances	1. Refrigerator
	2. Clothes Washer	Water Heater, Location
	3. Clothes Dryer (Electric or Fuel)	Beds/Baths, Clothes Washer
	4. Dishwasher	Water Heater, Location
	5. Cooking Range (Electric or Fuel)	Beds/Baths
7. Lighting	1. Lighting	Location
8. Misc Loads	1. Plug Loads	Beds/Baths
	2. Extra Refrigerator
	3. Freezer
	4. Hot Tub Heater (Electric or Gas)	Beds/Baths
	5. Hot Tub Pump	Beds/Baths
	6. Pool Heater (Electric or Gas)	Beds/Baths
	7. Pool Pump	Beds/Baths
	8. Well Pump	Beds/Baths
	9. Gas Fireplace	Beds/Baths
	10. Gas Grill	Beds/Baths
	11. Gas Lighting	Beds/Baths
9. Airflow	1. Airflow	Location, Beds/Baths, HVAC Equipment, Clothes Dryer

Retrofit Workflow for Users

Most of these measures were written to be reusable for existing building retrofits. The intended workflow is to create the existing building from an empty seed model in the same way as the New Construction Workflow. Once the existing building model has been created, the same measures can now be used to replace/modify building components as appropriate.

For example, while the dishwasher measure added a dishwasher to the model when applied to an empty seed model, the same measure, when applied to the existing building model, will replace the existing dishwasher with the newly specified dishwasher (rather than add an additional dishwasher to the model). This example could be used to evaluate an EnergyStar dishwasher replacement, for example. Alternatively, if the existing building was never assigned a dishwasher, then the measure would indeed add a dishwasher to the model.

Note that some measures are dependent on others. For example, if the Clothes Washer measure were to be applied to the existing building model, such that the existing clothes washer is replaced, the Clothes Dryer measure would also need to be subsequently applied to the existing building model so that its energy use, as dependent on the clothes washer, is correct.