12 things to know about Simergy

Simergy is a building performance simulation framework designed to enable users to perform multiple types of simulation & analysis.  This is accomplished by providing users with best-in-class tools for creating building models, connecting to multiple simulation/analysis engines, and then converting the Simergy model to the native model for the selected simulation/analysis.  The best known of the supported simulation types is DOE’s EnergyPlus – used to simulate the energy performance of buildings.  We listened to industry in our requirements focus sessions and developed support for realistic project workflows to take the user all the way through building design and analysis -- from the early stage through to detailed design.  The workflows facilitate the cycles of analysis that enable exploration of system types in effective ways and enable innovative HVAC system design.

1.  What's Active, What's Coming, What's Not there yet

‘Essential Reading’ files, ‘Release Notes’ and other ‘Getting Stared’ materials aren't always the most exciting reading material, but taking a close look at them will assist in getting a good start with Simergy.  The Simergy team wants users to be aware of what is active and what is coming, so if you haven't read the "Essential Reading", we recommend it, as well as reviewing the Simergy website on a regular basis for new announcements.  Please give special attention to the Survival tips in the Essential Reading and join the support forum.

2. Chunking

If you are not familiar with the concept of "Chunking", now is a good time to learn.  As with any tool that is powerful and complex, it is important to "Chunk" what you take on and what you try and remember, so that the content is broken down in more effective pieces and triggers that can assist learning and retaining more details.  The following section contains some recommended "Chunks", which we have titled "Simergy in 3s"

3.  Target Audience and Recommendations for Getting Started

The target audience for Simergy is building design engineers and architects, energy modelers, energy analysts, and technical consultants (or graduate students for any of these fields).  As you may know already, Building Energy Modeling (BEM) for simulation is detailed and sometimes complex work, so you can expect that there will be a learning curve involved in ramping up to use Simergy (or any similar product).  Simergy makes the process of using EnergyPlus easier and faster, by removing the need to deal with xyz coordinates at the envelope level and the need to deal with HVAC node names.  That said, some knowledge of EnergyPlus is a distinct advantage.  The following are five recommendations for getting started with Simergy, which have been provided by the gurus on the Simergy Team:

• Watch “The Help Tour” video to learn about the different types of resources that are available and review the “How to Use Help Guide” (in the help menu of Simergy.  Look for the green “?” icon in the upper left).

• Review the Workspace Guide:  Look over the workspace guide and open Simergy and look at a few of the workspaces while reviewing the document.  This will help to get a feel for the User Interface Landscape of Simergy.  Other guides available include – How to Use Help, Natural Ventilation, Daylighting Controls, Results Visualization and ASHRAE System 7 Sample File Guide.

• Watch some or all of the Short Video Tutorials

• Sample Files are a Good Starting Point:  The Sample Projects serve as comprehensive Simergy examples.  Once you have downloaded Simergy, a “Sample Projects Folder” will have been loaded with Simergy (typical location - C:\Users\Public\Simergy\Samples\SampleProjects) that contains a number of different sample projects for different building forms and HVAC system types, including ASHRAE 90.1 systems. 

• Get Familiar with HVAC Diagramming and Libraries & Templates:  People  don’t typically read the manual before jumping in for a test drive, but in this case taking some time to understand the infrastructure of these three powerful feature areas can really help.  

4.  EnergyPlus under the hood

At this time, most users of Simergy are using it to perform building energy performance simulations in EnergyPlus.  EnergyPlus is the premier simulation of this kind in the world, mainly because it enables a wide range of HVAC system types —  both typical and low-energy.  The underlying data model in Simergy ― Simulation Domain Model, or SimModel ― is began as a union of the IFC data schema (BuildingSMART, 2012) and the EnergyPlus input data model.  Users familiar with Energy Plus will recognize the properties (parameters) of the object types included in Simergy.

The motivation for this approach was threefold: to enable import of building models from BIM authoring applications (typically exchanged using IFC), to enable support for virtually all EnergyPlus concepts, and to maximize compatibility with other analysis/simulation tools by supporting the global standard for exchange of building models (IFC). The second such analysis platform to be integrated was the CBECC platform for assessing the compliance of building models with requirements in building energy codes.  Other analysis/simulation engines in our roadmap include: Radiance and Modelica-based tools.

Throughout the help content there are references and links to the EnergyPlus documentation to provide transparency to 'what's going on under the hood'.  This includes links to the EnergyPlus Input Output Reference in the Simergy Help documentation.  Please also be aware of the Online Energy Plus Documentation, which became available a few years ago.  Use the Sample Files as a starting point to get familiar with Simergy, as well as the ASHRAE Baseline System 7 Guide that contains information about all of the inputs associated with this sample file.

5. Geometry Workflow Options

Simergy provides users with the option to import geometry from BIM or 2D CAD files, as well as the ability to create geometry directly.  Translation of geometry from Building Information Models (BIM) to Building Energy Models (BEM) has always been a challenge.  Simergy provides a continuously improving set of workflows for creating the building model.  These include:

·         Workflow #1 - Build your own geometry utilizing the Simergy tools to develop models quick and easily from the earliest stages. 

·         Workflow #2 - Build geometry from imported floor plans (dxf or dwg).[1]

·         Workflow #3 – Import a BIM using Industry Foundation Class (IFC).  More specifically, Simergy imports the ‘Concept Design BIM’, which is aModel View Definition (MVD) first developed for the US General Services Administration and similar national property management organizations for 7 other nations.¹

·         Workflow #4 - Import a BIM using gbXML, which was originally developed to include the data needed for EnergyPlus.¹

6. HVAC Diagramming Approach (Caution: High Degree of Customization Possible)

The HVAC Diagramming approach within Simergy involves visualization at both the loop level and the individual component level.  At the highest level, the user can view/draw/edit schematic diagrams that define configurations for zone equipment, air loops, water loops (hot water, chilled water, condenser water and mixed water), variable refrigerant flow (VRF) loops and more.  Further,

the user can incorporate sensors and controls (with detailed control schemes) into these system designs.  These two-dimensional schematic diagrams will be familiar to design engineers, as they are consistent with current industry practice.

The user has the choice of creating these HVAC system designs from scratch or using templates.  Creation of an original system is done in a diagramming workspace, where the user can select/drag/drop components and connections to create the system they want to condition spaces/zones in the building model.  These diagrams are interpreted by Simergy to generate the equivalent input data for EnergyPlus.  The diagrams are also useful for documentation and review processes.

When the user wants to use a system template, they can choose from system configurations created in previous projects or from dozens of industry standard system templates distributed with Simergy.  The system templates that ship with Simergy were developed in collaboration with industry engineers and energy modelers to provide a starting point based on industry best practice.

7. HVAC Validation Framework ¹

Simergy also includes a comprehensive, rule-based, model validation framework.  This framework is called by various operations in Simergy UI, to evaluate whether subsets of the model (e.g. components, systems, and building geometry) meet requirements of various rules and rule sets – designed to ensure that models are ready for simulation or analysis.  Some of the rules enforce physical consistency, e.g. don’t connect an air-port to a water-port, and are applied continuously during the drawing process.  Other rules enforce EnergyPlus requirements, e.g. only one set of parallel branches on the supply side of a water loop, and these requirements are applied at the end of the process of creating each loop by clicking on the Validate button in either the Create/Edit or the Diagram workspaces.  Issues are documented for the user as either 'warnings', 'severe errors' or 'fatal errors.'  The motivation for this validation framework, is to trap as many errors as possible before running a simulation or analysis.  

The user should still review the EnergyPlus error file generated for each run; the Simergy validation rules only traps input errors and cannot trap run-time errors

8. Simulation/Analysis Issues Resolution Knowledgebase[RS1]    ¹

EnergyPlus is a large and complex simulation engine that supports a huge array of systems and component types.  This is a blessing when trying to simulate a new and innovative, low energy system … but it can be challenging to get some of these systems to simulate correctly because of the detailed data and configuration that is often required.  In fact, many users of EnergyPlus are often perplexed about how to resolve such issues.  The Simergy team is developing an expert knowledgebase with resolution advice for thousands of EnergyPlus errors.  It also groups like issues and puts them into a prioritized ‘Issue Resolution Checklist.’  Additionally, there is a link in the checklist that will take the user to the object associated with the issue – to help facilitate resolution.  The user simply makes their way down this list, resolving issues, and then marking them as resolved – until another simulation is launched.

9. Reports & Results Visualization ¹

Finding your way effectively through the maze of simulation results can be a daunting task.  Sometimes you want to check certain things quickly and other times you need to investigate and interrogate the results in greater detail.  Simergy enables both of these through Reports and Results Visualization (ResViz).  If you want to check things quickly, selecting on the different Summary Reports within the reports set allows you to review "graphical and tabular" results in new ways.   However, if you need to interrogate the results further, the data visualization capabilities within Results Visualization allows you to explore the output variables individually, in groups and across multiple design alternatives.  You can use the predefined Results Screens and Results Screen Templates that include up to four pre-defined views of graphed output variables to quickly start the "deep dive" or you can create and customize your own using the different chart types.  

10. Libraries & Templates

These are two key core elements of Simergy that drive the ability to generate BEMs.  Both are tabs on the main interface ribbon and each includes a significant number of workspaces that enable some of the more powerful features within Simergy.  Libraries contain homogeneous sets of information, e.g. fans, whereas Templates contain heterogeneous sets of information, e.g. a specific type of HVAC system. Library files (Source Libraries) contain Templates and different categories of Library.  Libraries contain Library Entries, which consist of Properties.

Simergy ships with three Libraries that have been developed by industry experts.  Here is a brief introduction:

·        Library.siml – contains industry standard library elements and templates defined by ASHRAE and COMNET

·        T24 Library.siml – contains library elements and templates for creating California Title-24 (building energy code) models for compliance checking against that code.

·        TemplateEmpty Library – is an empty library that can be copied, renamed, and used by users looking to create and manage their own library content

Users can add, copy, and edit content in any of these libraries.  The user also has the option of having as many as 4 such libraries loaded at once – and can then switch between any of these libraries to find content for reuse in their projects.  Users can configure this in File > Options > Library Preferences.  The library content is grouped into  Library Categories (examples include Plant equipment (boilers, chillers, etc.), Terminal equipment (light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, etc.), and constructions (material layer sets for walls, floors, roofs, etc.).  The user can select library entries from previously assembled library entries  and/or create new ones by selecting a combination of type and sub-types to generate a set of variables to be populated with values by the user.  Selecting Libraries on the Ribbon shows the large number of library types that are available to support the Templates.  In addition, there are Libraries workspaces, such as the Calendar Editor, the Schedules Editor, and the Material Layer Set Editor, that provide the ability to create schedules in a user friendly, graphical way.

Templates provides the user the ability to combine different types of information by assembling sets of library entries that are shipped with Simergy and/or custom libraries created by the user .  System Templates provide users with pre-defined sets zone HVAC equipment configurations for linking to air and/or water HVAC loops.  The System Template workspaces are set up in a similar fashion to the System Diagram workspaces so that users can build the System Templates in the same way that they build a specific system for a project.

11. Full Sample Files (Simulation Ready)

(Standard location = C:\Users\Public\Simergy\Samples\SampleProjects).   Several sample project models are installed with Simergy.  See the ASHRAE Baseline System 7 Guide, which can be accessed from the green question mark icon in Simergy.  They contain all the elements that that are required in Simergy to run a simulation, including location, site, building geometry, Zone Groups and Zone HVAC Groups, HVAC systems, controls and required component properties.  Taking a closer look at these files or, better still, try them out to reduce the learning curve for Simergy.  There are more than 10 ASHRAE sample projects and more than 10 Title 24 sample projects.

12. Feedback

Feedback – We need and welcome your feedback in order to help improve Simergy from release to release.  You are encouraged to log issues (see the entry form on the website at: https://d-alchemy.com/SimergyLogin.aspx?ReturnUrl=/ReportBug.aspx, propose enhancements (send email to Support@DigitalAlchemyPro.com), and ask questions by using the support form on the Simergy website (see above).  This way the submission can flow directly into a log and be tagged and tracked.  Use the Windows Snipping Tool (All Programs | Accessories | Snipping Tool) to capture all or part of the screen to a file or files – this is a very powerful and convenient tool for documenting and reporting issues ; please also be sure to specify the simplest, most direct way to reproduce the problem.  For general comments and feedback, send an e-mail to: Support@DigitalAlchemyPro.com