Simulating Tall Buildings Using EnergyPlus

Tall buildings pose unique challenges for simulation software and modelers. Environmental factors such as air temperature and wind speed change with altitude. The urban environment imposes additional environmental factors because of shading and reflections from surrounding buildings. The large scale of tall buildings can result in excessive input data and prohibitive run times. EnergyPlus was used to compare the energy impacts of several environmental factors that vary with altitude. Results showed that environmental factors have a significant effect on the annual total building cooling and heating energy. The accuracy of using multipliers to reduce input data was also studied. Even simulating a single floor with a multiplier can give accurate results for an entire building, as long as the floor is near midheight.