In-situ empirical validation of common indoor climate parameters in an inhabited multizone dwelling

Abstract

Combined building indoor climate and energy simulation models only recently gained vast popularity and their application has been moving from the research community to a broader audience. Yet, in-situ empirical validation of this new generation of complex multi-purpose dynamic simulation models has lagged behind. Using a dynamic multizone building indoor climate and energy simulation model in Modelica with the IDEAS library and buoyancy driven airflow components (validated with CONTAM), this research presents model validation results and lessons learned from an in-situ empirical validation study of common indoor climate parameters (i.e., indoor air temperature (${\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{i}}$), relative humidity (RH) and CO₂ concentration (CO₂)) for an inhabited and mechanically ventilated case study dwelling in The Netherlands. The simulation results show that the latest generation of building indoor climate and energy models in Modelica have great ability to accurately predict common indoor climate parameters in multizone inhabited dwellings (provided that user behavior info is available). Evaluation metrics for the three studied parameters show excellent calibration criteria (i.e., MAE between 0.60–0.78 °C (${\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{i}}$), 3.5–4.6% (RH) and 88–181 ppm (CO₂)) and the accompanying graphs corroborate the findings. In the event that no motion sensor data is available, statistically generated occupancy profiles prove good representative alternatives on the condition that basic info is available about the number of inhabitants and the inhabitants’ lifestyle. In-situ monitoring for empirical model validation proves to be a real challenge full of (un)foreseen obstacles.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Hasselaar and family (residents) for their cooperation. The authors thank the partners from DUCO Ventilation & Sun Control for providing the technical system data and the useful discussions. The authors thank Mr. Ritchie (Hukseflux Thermal Sensors B.V.) for providing the solar irradiance data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work presented in this paper has been developed within the frame of an R&D-project, funded by the Flanders Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) and further supported by Ghent University under BOF Grant (01D04818). This financial support is gratefully acknowledged.