Case studies preparation
This document covers general topics and criteria for the selection of case studies, such as services to consider, climatic data, use profiles and sample buildings.
Case studies shall help show and/or demonstrate:
- functionality,
- sensitivity,
- and usability
of individual calculation modules and of the whole calculation procedure.
The excel spreadsheets can demonstrate the functionality and sensitivity of individual calculation modules and of their combination.
The usability of accompanying spreadsheets can be improved by adding dedicated sheets for the input and output data interface but the possibility of the interface of an Excel spreadsheet are limited indeed. However, it has to be noted that practical usability of any calculation procedure is strongly dependent on the quality of the user interface of the available software.
It is worth noting that to perform an energy performance calculation you have to:
- describe the building envelope;
- describe the technical systems.
Usability issues are quite different:
- defining the building envelope is a task that is conceptually simple but very extensive because it requires the input of a long list of elements that make the building envelope and their geometrical relationship (for shadings);
- defining the technical systems is a task that is relatively short but very intensive because it requires the selection between several alternatives.
To demonstrate functionality and sensitivity of the calculation procedure, it is not necessary to have a large and complex building.
The target of this document is to define a set of case studies and to check that it is representative indeed of most situations that may occur during energy performance calculation of buildings.