Running EnergyPlus through an API

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Hello,

I'm new to EnergyPlus and was wondering if it would be possible to access it via an API?

The idea is to have the building modeled in EnergyPlus, and then to have our application (opentaps.org) access it by passing in weather data and then getting in return modeled energy use. We would then calculate the energy savings against actual meter readings, value those energy savings, and distribute payments between different groups (building owner, tenants, investor, etc.)

Do you currently have an API access? If not do you think it would make sense for us to make one for EnergyPlus?

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sichen1234

asked 2020-01-30 18:06:46 -0500

11.8k

shorowit

updated 2020-01-30 19:17:41 -0500

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Nearly everyone who uses EnergyPlus interacts with it through an API.

OpenStudio is the primary API for EnergyPlus. EnergyPlus and OpenStudio are maintained by NREL. jEPlus, eppy (python), and params are other APIs for EnergyPlus that other forum users have made work.

I strongly recommend using one of the above APIs instead of making your own. It's a lot of work to just maintain an API to stay up to date with recent versions of EnergyPlus, let alone build one.

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mdahlhausen

answered 2020-01-31 09:53:58 -0500

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Absolutely! We'd certainly use an existing API instead of trying to develop one ourselves!

I had read about OpenStudio before but thought it was more for visually modeling buildings, rather than running weather data through an existing building model to calculate the energy use. Maybe I missed something there?

Also I thought that ModelKit (params) seems to have a lot of what we're looking for. I liked that they have some prototype commercial buildings models. Has anybody had any experience working with ModelKit/Params?

sichen1234 (2020-02-04 16:49:15 -0500) edit

The devs will mostly agree that OpenStudio is better suited for parametric modeling, instead of a single "proposed building" case. Take a look at the example files for the Parametric Analysis Tool. I have set up scenarios similar to what you describe, but to run sensitivity studies. Regarding the prototype commercial buildings, you can take a look at the 'openstudio-standards' gem.