6.4.2 Reference Test Cases

The software verification test suite found in section 2.2 of the RESNET document “Procedures for Verification of International Energy Conservation Code Performance Path Calculation Tools” dated September 2007 shall be utilized to verify the accuracy of the program.

1. Tier 1 of the HERS BESTEST and the Florida HERS BESTEST as described below.
2. The Florida Energy Code Reference Home AutoGen Tests shall be used to verify the ability of the software tool to automatically generate the Florida Building Code’s Standard Reference Design Home. The test document is in Appendix C of this manual.
3. HVAC tests – These tests verify the accuracy and consistency with which software tools predict the performance of HVAC equipment, including furnaces, air conditioners and air source heat pump.
4. Duct distribution system efficiency tests – These tests verify the accuracy with which software tools calculate air distribution system losses. ASHRAE Standard 152 results are used as the basis of acceptance criteria for this test suite.
5. Hot water system performance tests – These tests determine the ability of the software to accurately predict hot water system energy use.

The reference Tier 1 HERS BESTEST and Florida HERS BESTEST software verification test cases are found in the following documents:

NREL/TP-550-23124a “Home Energy Rating System Building Energy Simulation Test for Florida (Florida-HERS BESTEST),”Volume 1 Tier 1 Tests User’s Manual, August 1997, Judkoff, Ron and Joel Neymark

NREL/TP-472-7332a “Home Energy Rating System Building Energy Simulation Test (HERS BESTEST),” Volume 1 Tier 1 Tests User’s Manual, November 1995, Judkoff, Ron and Joel Neymark.

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy. The report was developed under Contract No. DE-AC36-83CH10093, Task No. 0796.5503, managed by the Midwest Research Institute. A copy of the reference test procedures and sample results may be located from:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

1617 Cole Boulevard

Golden, Colorado 80401-3393

Or online at: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy97/23124a.pdf

6.4.3 Testing Procedures

Using the test cases identified in the reference document in 6.4.2 above,

1) Simulate the cases as outlined in the reference document (Orlando, FL TMY)

2) Record the results using the tables identified in the reference test documentsMS Excel spreadsheets provided by the commission (see below)

3) Compare your output with Volume 2 Tier 1 Tests Reference Results

4) Determine if your compliance software pass or fail the tests

3) A Software Vendor shall also submit test results for Las Vegas, NV and Colorado Springs, CO (HERS BESTEST) and for Orlando, FL (Florida-HERS BESTEST). The source and data of the reference test results used for comparison must be submitted with the application.

Results Forms in MS Excel Spreadsheets format are available on the Florida Building Commission’s website, www.floridabuilding.org for the verification Ttests 1,3,4 and 5 depictedspecified in Section 6.4.2 above.

The Forms are:

Florida_AutoGen_results-form.xls

HERS_BESTEST_results-form.xls

FL-HERS_BESTEST_results-form.xls

HVAC_results-form

DSE_results-form

DHW_results-form

A program may be considered as having passed successfully through the test when its results compare favorably with the reference results fall inside the maximum and minimum ranges provided by these results forms. (Volume 2 Tier 1 Tests for Orlando, FL).

APPENDIX C

Florida Energy Code Reference Home Auto-Generation Tests

This section contains the Reference Home auto-generation test suite for IECC performance compliance tools. The test cases in this proposed test suite are designed to verify that software tools automatically generate accurate Standard Reference Designs given only the building information from the Proposed Homes.

C.1 Minimum Reporting Requirements

Software tools applying for verification shall provide evidence that their software meets the requirements of this test suite. The software tool provider or software vendor is responsible for producing the documentation needed to show that the software has been verified through this test suite. In some cases, the data needed to verify accuracy is of no interest or value to the end-user of the software, but in any case, the software tool must generate it. At a minimum, software tools applying for accreditation must report the following values for the Reference Home:

1. Areas and overall U-factors (or R-values in the case of slab-on-grade construction) for all building components, including ceilings, walls, floors, windows (by orientation) and doors.

2. Overall solar-heat gain coefficient (SHGC_o)[1] of the windows during heating.

3. Overall solar-heat gain coefficient (SHGC_o) of the windows during cooling.

4. Wall solar absorptance and infrared emittance

5. Roof solar absorptance and infrared emittance

6. Total internal gains (including 20% latent) to the home (Btu/day)

7. Specific leakage area (SLA) for the building, by zone or as SLA_o[2], as appropriate

8. Attic net free ventilation area (ft²)

9. Crawlspace net free ventilation area (ft²), if appropriate

10. Exposed masonry floor area and carpet and pad R-value, if appropriate

11. Heating system labeled ratings, including AFUE, COP, or HSPF, as appropriate.

12. Cooling system labeled ratings, including SEER or EER, as appropriate.

13. Thermostat schedule for heating and cooling

14. Air distribution system characteristics, including locations of all supply and return ducts and the air handler units, supply and return duct R-values, and supply and return duct air leakage values (in cfm₂₅).[3]

15. Mechanical ventilation kWh/yr, if appropriate

Software tools must have the ability to recreate or store the test case Standard Reference Designs as if they were Proposed Homes such that they also can be simulated and evaluated as the Proposed Homes.

C.2 Auto-generation Test Case Descriptions

Test Case1. HERS BESTEST case L100 building configured as specified in the HERS BESTEST procedures, located in Baltimore, MD Tallahassee, FL, including a total of 3 bedrooms and the following mechanical equipment: gas furnace with AFUE = 82% and central air conditioning with SEER = 11.0.

Test Case 2. HERS BESTEST case L100 configured on an un-vented crawlspace with R-7 crawlspace wall insulation, located in Dallas, TX Orlando, FL, including a total of 3 bedrooms and the following mechanical equipment: electric heat pump with HSPF = 7.5 and SEER = 12.0.

Test Case 3. HERS BESTEST case L304 in Miami, configured as specified in the HERS BESTEST procedures, located in Miami, FL, including a total of 2 bedrooms and the following mechanical equipment: electric strip heating with COP = 1.0 and central air conditioner with SEER = 15.0.

Test Case 4. HERS BESTEST case L324 configured as specified as in the HERS BESTEST procedures, located in Colorado Springs, CO Jacksonville, FL, including a total of 4 bedrooms and the following mechanical equipment: gas furnace with AFUE = 95% and no air conditioning.

Test Case 5. Recreate or store the Reference Homes created in Tests 1 through 4 as Rated Homes and simulate and evaluate them.

C.3 Acceptance Criteria

C.3.1 Test Cases 1 – 4.

For test cases 1 through 4 the values contained in Table 3.2C.3.1 shall be used as the acceptance criteria for software tool accreditation. For Standard Reference Design building components marked by an asterisk (*), the acceptance criteria may include a range equal to ± 0.05% of the listed value. For all other Reference Home components the listed values are exact.

Table C.3.1 Acceptance Criteria for Test Cases 1 – 4

Reference Home Building Component	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Test 4
Above-grade walls (Uo)	0.082	0.082	0.082	0.08260
Above-grade wall solar absorptance (α)	0.75	0.75	0.75	0.75
Above-grade wall infrared emittance (ε)	0.90	0.90	0.90	0.90
Basement walls (Uo)	n/a	n/a	n/a	0.36059
Above-grade floors (Uo)	0.06447	0.06447	n/a	n/a
Slab insulation R-Value	n/a	n/a	0	0
Ceilings (Uo)	0.030	0.035	0.035	0.0350
Roof solar absorptance (α)	0.75	0.75	0.75	0.75
Roof infrared emittance (ε)	0.90	0.90	0.90	0.90
Attic vent area* (ft^2)	5.13	5.13	5.13	5.13
Crawlspace vent area* (ft^2)	n/a	10.26	n/a	n/a
Exposed masonry floor area* (ft^2)	n/a	n/a	307.8	307.8
Carpet &pad R-Value	n/a	n/a	2.0	2.0
Door Area (ft^2)	40	40	40	40
Door U-Factor	0.7540	0.7565	0.751.20	0.735
North window area* (ft^2) IECC 2004 (IECC 2006)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	102.63 (67.50)
South window area* (ft^2) IECC 2004 (IECC 2006)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	102.63 (67.50)
East window area* (ft^2) IECC 2004 (IECC 2006)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	102.63 (67.50)
West window area* (ft^2) IECC 2004 (IECC 2006)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	69.26 (67.50)	102.63 (67.50)
Window U-Factor	0.7540	0.7565	0.751.20	0.735
Window SHGCo (heating)	0.34	0.34	0.34	0.34
Window SHGCo (cooling)	0.28	0.28	0.28	0.28
SLAo (ft^2/ft^2) IECC 2004 (IECC 2006)	0.00048 (0.00036)	0.00048 (0.00036)	0.00048 (0.00036)	0.00048 (0.00036)
Internal gains* (Btu/day)	66,84071,167	66,84071,167	62,605736	1037,572,014
Labeled heating system efficiency rating	AFUE = 78%	HSPF = 7.7	HSPF = 7.7	AFUE = 78%
Labeled cooling system efficiency rating	SEER = 13.0	SEER = 13.0	SEER = 13.0	SEER = 13.0
Air Distribution System Efficiency	0.80	0.80	0.80	0.80
Thermostat Type	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual
Heating thermostat settings	68 F (all hours)	68 F (all hours)	68 F (all hours)	68 F (all hours)
Cooling thermostat settings	78 F (all hours)	78 F (all hours)	78 F (all hours)	78 F (all hours)

C.3.2 Test Case 5.

Test case 5 requires that each of the Standard Reference Design for test cases 1-4 be stored or recreated in the software tool as Proposed Homes and simulated as any other rated home would be simulated. If the resulting Proposed Home is correctly configured to be identical to its appropriate Standard Reference Design, code compliance calculations arising from normal operation of the software tool should produce virtually identical scoring criteria for both the Standard Reference Design and the Proposed Home for this round of tests. For test case 5, the energy use e-Ratio shall be calculated separately from the simulation results for heating and cooling, as follows:

e-Ratio = (Proposed Home energy use) / (Standard Reference Design energy use)

Acceptance criteria for these calculations shall be ± 0.5% of 1.00. Thus, for each of the preceding test cases (1-4), the e-Ratio resulting from these software tool simulations and the subsequent e-Ratio calculations shall be greater than or equal to 0.995 and less than or equal to 1.005.

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[1] The overall solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC_o) of a fenestration is defined as the solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of the fenestration product taken in combination with the interior shade fraction for the fenestration.

[2]SLA_o is the floor-area weighted specific leakage area of a home where the different building zones (e.g. basement and living zones) have different specific leakage areas.

[3] cfm₂₅ = cubic feet per minute of air leakage to outdoors at a pressure difference between the duct interior and outdoors of 25 Pa.