Origins of whole-building energy simulations for high-performance commercial buildings: Contributions of NATEOUS, SHEP, TACS, CP-26, and RESPTK programs

Abstract

Previous studies have traced the earliest origins of today’s whole-building energy simulation programs, such as EnergyPlus, eQUEST, DOE-2.1E, TRNSYS, TRACE, and HAP, to two public simulation programs in the early 1970’s, including: the Post Office program and the NBSLD program. However, in the 1960’s, there were earlier public simulation programs that had a significant influence on developments of the Post Office and NBSLD programs and are therefore related to many of the today’s whole-building energy simulation programs but were not discussed in previous studies, including: the NATEOUS program, the SHEP program, and the TACS program. In addition, there were public supplementary calculation programs that also contributed to developments of the Post Office and NBSLD programs, including: the CP-26 program and the RESPTK program. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to further clarify the earliest origins of today’s whole-building energy simulation programs based on the analysis of these early computer programs. This study extends the previous research (Oh and Haberl 2016) that discussed the origins of today’s whole-building energy simulation programs for high-performance commercial buildings and the thermal analysis methods used in these programs.