Comparison of software models for energy savings from cool roofs

Joshua New, William A. Miller, Yu Huang, Ronnen Levinson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

A web-based Roof Savings Calculator (RSC) has been deployed for the United States Department of Energy as an industry-consensus tool to help building owners, manufacturers, distributors, contractors and researchers easily run complex roof and attic simulations. RSC simulates multiple roof and attic technologies for side-by-side comparison including reflective roofs, different roof slopes, above sheathing ventilation, radiant barriers, low-emittance roof surfaces, duct location, duct leakage rates, multiple substrate types, and insulation levels. Annual simulations of hour-by-hour, whole-building performance are used to provide estimated annual energy and cost savings from reduced HVAC use. While RSC reported similar cooling savings to other simulation engines, heating penalty varied significantly. RSC results show reduced cool roofing cost-effectiveness, thus mitigating expected economic incentives for this countermeasure to the urban heat island effect. This paper consolidates comparison of RSC's projected energy savings to other simulation engines including DOE-2.1E, AtticSim, Micropas, and EnergyPlus. Also included are comparisons to previous simulation-based studies, analysis of RSC cooling savings and heating penalties, the role of radiative heat exchange in an attic assembly, and changes made for increased accuracy of the duct model. Radiant heat transfer and duct interaction not previously modeled is considered a major contributor to heating penalties.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)130-135
Number of pages6
JournalEnergy and Buildings
Volume114
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 15 2016

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by field work proposal CEBT105 under the U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office Activity Number BT0201000 .

Keywords

  • Building energy modeling
  • Cool roofs
  • Energy efficiency
  • Urban heat island

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