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EnerCalC: Simplified balancing process with Excel tool
The balancing process according to DIN V 18599 has been frequently criticised because of its complexity and time-consuming application. Calls to simplify the process came soon after the pre-standard series was first published. As part of a research project, the Excel-based EnerCalC tool has now been developed that is particularly suited for characterising buildings in terms of their energy use during the preliminary design phases.
With relatively little input expenditure, EnerCalC enables the energy performance for a building to be balanced in accordance with DIN V 18599. In addition to inputting building-related data, it enables up to 11 different zones to be defined. Furthermore, the program enables simplified primary energy balancing and provides information for designing the respective building as a “net-zero-energy building”. The preciseness of the results can be increased even further by defining main orientations for individual zones. Additional spreadsheets enable the amount of detail to be increased as required.
The EnerCalC Excel tool was created as part of a dissertation written for the Department of Building Physics and Technical Building Services at the University of Wuppertal and was used to develop and validate simplification methods based on the balancing rules provided by DIN V 18599. The tool is based on Excel and uses macros. It runs with the Excel 2007 and 2010 PC versions, whereby the execution of macros must be enabled.
The energy balancing of a non-residential building generally requires extensive zoning of the building and, in relation to this, time consuming determination of the zone-related envelope. With EnerCalC, the building envelope is recorded on the basis of a single-zone model, whereas the energy balancing takes place in the multiple zone model. For this purpose, in the first method the surface area of the building envelope is divided proportionately across the individual zones (simplified procedure). Particularly for partially air-conditioned buildings, the preciseness of the results can be increased further by additionally defining the actual orientations of the zone-related surface areas of the building envelope (extended procedure).