The Building Energy Simulation Test (BESTEST) is a project developed by the International Energy Agency for practical implementation procedure and data for an overall IEA validation methodology which has been under development by NREL since 1981.
The project methodology is based on a combination of empirical validation, analytical verification and comparative analysis techniques. A method was developed to systematically test whole building energy simulation programs and analyze the sources of predictive disagreement. State of the art software was examined such as BLAST, DOE2, COMFIE, ESP-r, SERIRES, S3PAS, TASE, HOT2000, and TRNSYS. In order to conduct a uniform set of unambiguous test cases and test tried to describe the cases in a fashion that allows many different building simulation programs to be tested. Output values for cases, such as annual loads, annual temperatures, annual peak loads, and some hourly data are compared in relation with the diagnostic logic to determine the algorithm responsible for predictive differences. The more realistic cases and geometrically simple cases, such as cases BESTEST600 to 650, test ability of the programs to model effects such as thermal mass, direct solar gain windows, shading devices, infiltration, internal heat gain, sunspaces, earth coupling, and setback thermostat control.
This approach succeeded to be a reference evaluation methodology for other simple or complex building energy simulation programs. The BESTEST procedure has been used by most building simulation software developers as part of their standard quality control program. The BESTEST method has shown that when a program shows major disagreement with the reference programs, the primary cause is usually a bug, faulty algorithm, or documentation problem.
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