Assessing the value of information in residential building simulation: Comparing simulated and actual building loads at the circuit level

Building energy simulation tools are now being used in a number of new roles such as building operation optimization, performance verification for efficiency programs, and – recently – building energy code analysis, design, and compliance verification in the residential sector. But increasing numbers of studies show major differences between the results of these simulations and the actual measured performance of the buildings they are intended to model. The accuracy and calibration of building simulations have been studied extensively in the commercial sector, but these new applications have created a need to better understand the performance of home energy simulations.