EnergyPlus-based passive building energy simulation experiment

The development of passive buildings is essential for promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of China's construction industry and achieving the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goals. This transformation urgently requires interdisciplinary talents in relevant professions. However, traditional university teaching methods for passive buildings struggle to meet the demands of cultivating such talents. To address this issue, this study proposed a novel teaching method for passive buildings by integrating virtual simulation and field investigation. This approach aims to comprehensively enhance the quality of talent cultivation in passive building design and operation management, providing new insights for passive building talent education.

The "virtual-reality integration" teaching model was adopted, combining EnergyPlus building energy simulation with on-site investigations and energy monitoring of actual passive buildings. Taking a passive house in Qingdao, China, as a case study, an EnergyPlus simulation model was established. Through field investigations, energy monitoring, mutual verification with simulation results, as well as energy-saving potential analysis and sensitivity factor analysis based on simulations, a hierarchical and integrated innovative, comprehensive experiment was designed.

The new method demonstrated strong operability, with high conformity between simulation results and measured data. The energy-saving effect of the passive building was effectively validated. The mean bias error and root mean square error of the simulated annual energy consumption were 2.64% and 21.04%, respectively. The simulated indoor average temperatures in winter and summer were close to the measured values, meeting accuracy requirements. During the cooling season, air conditioning and fresh air handling equipment dominated energy consumption. Effective passive building design significantly reduced this portion of energy consumption. The annual heating and cooling energy consumption indices of the case passive building were 14.08 kWh/m²·a and 8.37 kWh/m²·a, respectively, achieving 55.26% annual energy savings compared to traditional buildings. The air-conditioning energy-saving rate was 56.95%. Key passive strategies contributing to energy savings included exterior wall insulation, window insulation, and shading systems, accounting for 26.54%, 23.58%, and 23.97% of the total savings, respectively. Additionally, passive buildings ensured a more stable indoor temperature compared to traditional buildings, with an annual indoor average temperature of 20.5±3.0 ℃ and higher thermal comfort levels. Grey relational analysis showed that the average correlation degree ranking of various passive measures was exterior wall (0.853) > window (0.714) > airtightness (0.699) > heat recovery ventilation (0.655) > shading (0.507), with the thermal transmittance of exterior walls having the highest sensitivity to annual energy consumption.

Compared to traditional buildings, passive buildings achieve significant energy savings and provide a more stable indoor environment with higher comfort levels, making them an important direction for future building development. Through this designed experiment, the energy-saving effects of different passive design schemes can be effectively evaluated, providing a basis for further design optimizations. This "virtual-reality integration" experimental teaching model improves students' modeling and simulation analysis abilities, hands-on practical skills, innovative thinking, and scientific literacy. This approach enables the organic integration of theory and practice, providing a new path for cultivating versatile passive building talents.