An equation-based simulation environment to investigate fast building simulation

The design of innovative heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems for energy saver buildings relies on fast and robust computer softwares able to predict the details in space and time of the indoor environment. In this paper we show the interest of having in one hand, an open and flexible environment to develop and test new models, and on the other hand, a fast simulation tool that integrates satisfactory models to quickly assess the indoor environment quality. Both tools implements a simulation method called the zonal method that is intermediate between single-node models and computational fluid dynamics models. These tools are then applied to analyze the details of the indoor environment in a cavity under mixed convection conditions, to evaluate the thermal coupling between an electric heater and the ambiance and finally to realize a whole year thermal comfort analysis within a dwelling cell.