Many building energy simulation programs are available within the research community. One of the major concerns now is the transfer or sharing of these tools and the required expertise among developers and users for current applications. Recent advances in computer technology on human-computer interaction or computational methods have brought considerable improvement in these tools without any significant re-coding. The tools are becoming more user friendly, but they are still not very common among practitioners in HVAC control engineering.

This paper discusses the designing of a simulation tool primarily intended for the control field. It gives a method for modeling the dynamic interaction of a building's HVAC system in a graphical environment. The latter is, in fact, a widely used commercial software. The approach thus benefits from its user friendliness and also from its familiarity among practitioners. The work stresses the re-use of existing physical models of HVAC equipment. In the modeling approach, the theoretical aspects of each model are taken from the literature. More attention is paid to optimal use of the graphical programming techniques for a clear description of the systems and components. At every step of the modeling process (from the study of a single phenomenon to that of a whole system), the developer of the model should consider the way a user will perceive that model. This method provides insight into the phenomena involved in the models and also guides the assembly of models into systems.

Units: SI