This workshop focuses on the needs of the energy modeling practitioner in order to get you up to speed and highly productive with EnergyPlus as quickly as possible. We cover the fundamentals of EnergyPlus such as geometry and internal loads while rapidly ramping up to advanced topics such as HVAC systems and controls. We guide you through the complexities of the EnergyPlus syntax, input/output files, documentation, and essential software tools including the Euclid extension for SketchUp. Most importantly, we teach you how to use the available resources to teach yourself going forward. We have developed our training materials from scratch over a period of several years based on our extensive experience using EnergyPlus to model real-world projects and helping others to do the same. This workshop should be a prerequisite for anyone planning to work with EnergyPlus regardless of what user interface you choose. By the end of the workshop, you should be comfortable with creating, running, and debugging EnergyPlus models.

This workshop aims to quickly launch you into the world of the OpenStudio graphical user interface for EnergyPlus. We cover the major features and capabilities of the interface including creating and editing geometry using the full OpenStudio extension for SketchUp, managing space types and internal loads, and configuring HVAC systems and controls. (OpenStudio measure writing is not covered.) Demonstrations and hands-on exercises are used extensively throughout. Previous experience with EnergyPlus is recommended but not required. You are welcome to register for this workshop separately from other EnergyPlus and OpenStudio workshops.

This workshop covers the Energy Management System (EMS) capability of EnergyPlus, which allows the implementation of custom control strategies and calculation routines that override standard modeling processes within EnergyPlus. We cover the EnergyPlus Runtime Language (Erl) that is used to describe the custom control programs, how to create EMS components (sensors, actuators, output variables, etc.), and how to debug execution of EMS programs. Lecture topics include how to create advanced HVAC control sequences, how to override default HVAC operation (flow rate, setpoint temperature, capacity, etc.), how to abort a simulation when operational faults occur, and how to use outputs to generate trend data. Demonstrations and hands-on exercises are used extensively throughout. Previous experience with EnergyPlus is recommended but not required. You are welcome to register for this workshop separately from the EnergyPlus for Practitioners workshop.