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  3. 2.0 General Modeling Procedures and Requirements
  4. 2.1 Simulation General Requirements

2.1.1 Simulation Program

The simulation program used for compliance with the PRM shall meet the following requirements-

  1. The simulation program shall be a computer-based program for the analysis of energy consumption in buildings. It shall include calculation methodologies for the building components being modeled. When the simulation program does not explicitly model a design, material, or device of the proposed design, an exceptional calculation method shall be used if approved by the rating authority.
  2. The simulation program shall be approved by the rating authority and shall, at a minimum, have the ability to explicitly model all of the requirements stated in Standard 90.1-2019 Section G2.2.1.
  3. The simulation program shall have the ability to either directly determine the proposed building performance and baseline building performance or produce hourly reports of energy use by an energy source suitable for determining the proposed building performance and baseline building performance using a separate calculation engine.
  4. The simulation program shall be capable of performing design load calculations to determine required HVAC equipment capacities and air and water flow rates in accordance with generally accepted engineering standards and handbooks.
  5. The simulation program shall be tested according to ASHRAE Standard 140 (ASHRAE 2017), except for Sections 7 and 8 of Standard 140.

The simulation program used for compliance with the PRM shall meet the following requirements-

  1. The simulation program shall be a computer-based program for the analysis of energy consumption in buildings. It shall include calculation methodologies for the building components being modeled. When the simulation program does not explicitly model a design, material, or device of the proposed design, an exceptional calculation method shall be used if approved by the rating authority.
  2. The simulation program shall be approved by the rating authority and shall, at a minimum, have the ability to explicitly model all of the requirements stated in Standard 90.1-2022 Section G2.2.1.
  3. The simulation program shall have the ability to either directly determine the proposed building performance and baseline building performance or produce hourly reports of energy use by an energy source suitable for determining the proposed building performance and baseline building performance using a separate calculation engine.
  4. The simulation program shall be capable of performing design load calculations to determine required HVAC equipment capacities and air and water flow rates in accordance with generally accepted engineering standards and handbooks.

    The simulation program shall be tested according to ASHRAE Standard 140 (ASHRAE 2017) for the version of the simulation program used to calculate the proposed building performance and baseline building performance, except for Sections 7 and 8 of Standard 140. The required tests shall include building thermal envelope and fabric load tests (Sections 5.2.1, 5.2.2, and 5.2.3), ground coupled slab-on-grade analytical verification tests (Section 5.2.4), space-cooling equipment performance tests (Section 5.3), space-heating equipment performance tests (Section 5.4), and air-side HVAC equipment analytical verification tests (Section 5.5), along with the associated reporting (Section 6).