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Publication - Advice and guidance

Scotland NCM software validation DSM and FI-SBEM software validation: guidance

Published
6 April 2023
From
Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights
Directorate
Local Government and Housing Directorate, +1 more … Energy and Climate Change Directorate
Part of
Building, planning and design, Energy, Environment and climate change
ISBN
9781805256526

Describes the methodology required for the validation of third party commercial Dynamic Simulation Modelling (DSM) and Front Interface Simplified Building Energy Modelling (FI-SBEM) software packages.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Appendix A: Test Cases

This Appendix provides the details of the Scotland software validation test cases. To stream-line the validation process for Scotland, the set of test cases used for England (under their 2021 NCM) will be adopted and tailored for use in Scotland. Software vendors will need to run test cases using their software under the Scotland Section 6 and EPC calculations. The details of the test cases are as described below.

There are two parts to the validation test cases:

  • Part 1: Test cases 1 – 11 are for testing the software implementation of the Scotland Section 6 and EPC calculations.
  • Part 2: Test cases 12 – 14 are for testing the software implementation of the Scotland Section 63 Action Plan

Part 1

Test cases 1 – 11 are based on the use of 5 buildings, 6 HVAC systems, 3 hot water systems and 2 LZC technologies. All of the buildings are setup to generally emulate the England Notional Building. Several specification details to highlight are:

The location should be set to Glasgow.

The building fabric properties (U-values, thermal mass, glazing g-value/light transmittance/frame factors, etc) should remain to match those described in the England NCM modelling guide (2021) for the Notional Building.

A.1 Test Cases for Software Validation

The vendor software will need to generate results for all the 11 test cases listed below.

Table A.1: Test cases with details on type of building, HVAC and HWS systems and LZC type

Test case

Building type

HVAC system type#

HWS type#

LZC type

England test case no.

1

Office##

HVAC 1a

HWS 1

1

2

Office##

HVAC 2

HWS 2

2

3

Warehouse

HVAC 6

HWS 2

6

4

Hotel###

HVAC 2

HWS 3

9

5

Retail

HVAC 2

HWS 2

10

6

School

HVAC 1b

HWS 1

13

7

Office##

Ground floor HVAC 1a

First floor: HAVC 2

HWS 2

18

8

Office##

HVAC 8

HWS 1

19

9

School

HVAC 9

HWS 2

New

10

Warehouse

HVAC 6

HWS 2

LZC 1

New

11

Warehouse

HVAC 6

HWS 2

LZC 2

New

# The stated HVAC system and HWS apply to all spaces

## The toilet activity in the Office building will have additional local mechanical extract of 10 ac/hr

### The store room activity in the Hotel building will have no HVAC (i.e. only lighting)

A.2 Building Geometry

The following table and figures describe the test cases building geometries.

Table A.2: Summary of test case building types

Geometry

NCM Activity Building Type

Dimensions

Office

B1 Offices and workshop businesses

Figure A.1

Warehouse

B8 Storage or distribution

Figure A.2

Hotel

C1 Hotel

Figure A.3

Retail unit

A1/A2 Retail and financial/professional services

Figure A.4

School

D1 Non-residential institutions - Education

Figure A.5
Figure A.1: Geometry for test case office building model

Snapshot of a modelled office building indicating various spaces and dimensions

Figure A.2: Geometry for test case warehouse building model

Snapshot of a modelled warehouse building indicating various spaces and dimensions

Figure A.3: Geometry for test case hotel building model

Snapshot of a modelled hotel building indicating various spaces and dimensions

Figure A.4: Geometry for test case retail unit building model

Snapshot of a modelled retail building indicating various spaces and dimensions

Figure A.5: Geometry for test case school building model

Snapshot of a modelled school building indicating various spaces and dimensions

A.3 HVAC System Types

Table A.3: Summary for HVAC system types

HVAC type

General description

HVAC 1a

Natural ventilation with LTHW radiator heating

  • Heat source - natural gas boiler with 88% seasonal efficiency

HVAC 1b

Natural ventilation with LTHW radiator heating

  • Heat source - air to water heat pump with scop of 2.64

HVAC 2

Fan coil system

  • Heat source - air to water heat pump with scop of 2.64
  • Cooling source – air cooled chiller with SEER of 4.50
  • AHU specific fan power of 1.8 W per l/s
  • FCU specific fan power of 0.3 W per l/s
  • Heat recovery with 70% sensible efficiency

HVAC 6

Natural ventilation with multi-burner radiant heating

  • Heat source – natural gas radiant heating with 86% seasonal efficiency (0.65 radiant fraction)

HVAC 8

Fan coil system with district heating

  • Heat source – District Heating with
    • CO2 factor 0.21kgCO2/kWh
    • PE factor 1.13kWhpe/kWh
  • Heating generator seasonal efficiency 1.0
  • Heating system seasonal efficiency 0.929
  • Cooling source – air cooled chiller with SEER of 4.50
  • AHU specific fan power of 1.8 W per l/s
  • FCU specific fan power of 0.3 W per l/s
  • Heat recovery with 70% sensible efficiency

HVAC 9

Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery with electric heating only

  • Heat source – direct electric
  • AHU specific fan power of 1.8 W per l/s
  • Heat recovery with 70% sensible efficiency

A.4 Hot Water System Types

Table A.4: Summary of hot water system types

HWS type

General description

HWS 1

Fed from space heating system

  • Storage with heat loss of 109.5 MJ/month or 1 kWh/day
  • Secondary circulation, loop length of 100m at 8 W/m heat loss, 30W pump power and time switch control.

HWS 2

Electric resistance point-of-use

  • 100% efficient, no storage

HWS 3

Dedicated DHW heat pump

  • Seasonal efficiency 3.20
  • 1000 litre storage tank with 80mm thick factory fitted insulated
  • Secondary circulation, loop length of 160m at 10 W/m heat loss, 100W pump power.

A.5 Low or Zero Carbon Systems

Table A.5: Summary of LZC system types

Low or zero carbon systems

General description

LZC 1

Photo-voltaic

  • 1000m² of mono-crystalline silicon facing south inclined at 30º from horizontal

LZC 2

Wind generators

  • Suburban or industrial area
  • Swept area – horizontal axis, diameter 40m
  • 40m height, 400kW

Part 2

Part 2 uses Test case 6 (school model) from Part 1 as the base model, with further modifications for the three Section 63 Action Plan test cases.

  • Test case 12 – to test trigger of roof insulation and lighting control prescriptive measures whilst others are suppressed due to conditions not being met
  • Test case 13 - to test trigger of roof insulation, draught proofing and lighting control prescriptive measures whilst others are suppressed due to conditions not met
  • Test case 14
    • to test trigger of draught proofing, heating control, boiler replacement and lamp replacement prescriptive measures
    • to test set up of alternative measures and impact of not overriding corresponding prescriptive measures
Table A.6: Specification for Test case 12

Item

General description

Fabric (trigger)
  • Roof U-value at 1.5 W/m2/K
  • Pitch 20° Classrooms only
  • Loft access

Heating control (no trigger)
  • None

HVAC 1b (no trigger)
  • Direct electric heating
  • SCOP is 100%

Lighting (no trigger)
  • Lamps luminous efficacy 25lm/cW

Lighting control (trigger)
  • None

HWS 1 (no trigger)
  • Fed from space heating system
  • Storage volume 200m3
  • 50mm insulation jacket
Table A.7: Specification for Test case 13

Item

General description

Fabric (trigger x 2)
  • Air infiltration rate at 15m3/h/m2
  • Roof U-value at 1.5 W/m2/K
  • Pitch 20°
  • No loft access

Heating control (no trigger)
  • None

HVAC 1b (no trigger)
  • Boiler is < 15 years old
  • Boiler SCOP is 60%

Lighting (no trigger)
  • T12 Fluorescent – halophosphate – low frequency ballast

Lighting control (trigger)
  • Local manual switching all areas

HWS 1 (no trigger)
  • Fed from space heating system
  • Storage volume 200m3
  • No insulation jacket present
Table A.8: Specification for Test case 14

Item

General description

Fabric (trigger)
  • Air infiltration rate at 25m3/h/m2
  • Roof U-value at 1.5 W/m2/K
  • Pitch 0°
  • Loft access

Heating control (trigger)
  • None

HVAC 1b (trigger)
  • Boiler is > 15 years old
  • Boiler SCOP is 65%

Lighting (trigger)
  • Tungsten/Halogen and Fluorescent - compact

Lighting control (no trigger)
  • Local manual and photoelectric switching all areas

HWS 1 (no trigger)
  • Fed from space heating system
  • Storage volume 1000m²
  • No insulation jacket present
Table A.9: Specification for Alternative Measures in Test case 14

Item

General description

Heating control
  • Do not override Prescriptive Measure
  • Install Central Time Control, Optimum start/stop & Weather Compensation

HVAC 1b
  • Do not override Prescriptive Measure – Boiler replacement
  • Replace boiler with direct electric heating
  • SCOP is 100%

Lighting
  • Do not override Prescriptive Measure – lamp replacement
  • Install LED lighting – use option "Lighting chosen but calculation not carried out"
  • Lamps luminous efficacy 125lm/cW
  • Light output ratio 1

HWS 1
  • Do not override Prescriptive Measure – insulation jacket
  • Install stand-alone water heat with no storage system

LZC
  • PV
  • 20m², monocrystalline
  • South, 30° inclination, no overshading, strongly ventilated

Contact

Email: buildingstandards@gov.scot

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