DOE-2

DOE-2 calculates the hourly energy use and energy cost of a commercial or
residential building given information about the building's climate, construction,
operation, utility rate schedule and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning
(HVAC) equipment.

Program
Documentation
Where
To
Purchase
DOE-2
Specialized
Versions
of DOE-2
Newsletter,
Help Desk,
Training
Technical
Reports
Sources
of
Weather
Data
Consultants,
Resource
Centers

Overview of DOE-2
Introduction
What is DOE-2?
Structure of DOE-2
BDL Processor
LOADS
HVAC
ECON
Weather Data
Library
Uses for DOE-2
Energy Conservation Studies
Building Design Studies
Validation of DOE-2
Documentation
Machine Requirements
Impacts of DOE-2
Developers
Introduction
The DOE-2 program for building energy use analysis provides the building construction
and research communities with an up-to-date, unbiased, well-documented computer
program for building energy analysis. DOE-2 is a portable FORTRAN program that can be
used on a large variety of computers, including PC's. Using DOE-2, designers can quickly
determine the choice of building parameters which improve energy efficiency while
maintaining thermal comfort. A user can provide a simple or increasingly detailed
description of a building design or alternative design options and obtain an accurate
estimate of the proposed building's energy consumption, interior environmental conditions
and energy operation cost.

What Is DOE-2?
DOE-2 is an up-to-date,
unbiased computer program
that predicts the hourly energy
use and energy cost of a
building given hourly weather
information and a description of
the building and its HVAC
equipment and utility rate
structure. Using DOE-2,
designers can determine the
choice of building parameters
that improve energy efficiency
while maintaining thermal
comfort and cost-effectiveness.
The purpose of DOE-2 is to aid
in the analysis of energy usage
in buildings; it is not intended to
be the sole source of
information relied upon for the
design of buildings: The
judgment and experience of the
architect/engineer still remain
the most important elements of
building design.
Structure of DOE-2
The figure shows a flowchart of
DOE-2. Basically, DOE-2 has
one subprogram for translation
of your input (BDL Processor),
and four simulation
subprograms (LOADS,
SYSTEMS, PLANT and
ECON). LOADS, SYSTEMS
and PLANT are executed in
sequence, with the output of
LOADS becoming the input of
SYSTEMS, etc. The output
then becomes the input to
ECON. Each of the simulation
subprograms also produces
printed reports of the results of
its calculations.
DOE-2 Flow




The elements of DOE-2 shown in the figure are as follows:
BDL Processor
The Building Description Language (BDL) processor reads the flexibly formatted input
data that you supply and translates it into computer recognizable form. It also calculates
response factors for the transient heat flow in walls and weighting factors for the thermal
response of building spaces.
LOADS
The LOADS simulation subprogram calculates the sensible and latent components of the
hourly heating or cooling load for each user-designated space in the building, assuming
that each space is kept at a constant user-specified temperature. LOADS is responsive to
weather and solar conditions, to schedules of people, lighting and equipment, to
infiltration, to heat transfer through walls, roofs, and windows and to the effect of building
shades on solar radiation.
HVAC
The SYSTEMS subprogram handles secondary systems; PLANT handles primary
systems. SYSTEMS calculates the performance of air-side equipment (fans, coils, and
ducts); it corrects the constant-temperature loads calculated by the LOADS subprogram
by taking into account outside air requirements, hours of equipment operation, equipment
control strategies, and thermostat set points. The output of SYSTEMS is air flow and coil
loads. PLANT calculates the behavior of boilers, chillers, cooling towers, storage tanks,
etc., in satisfying the secondary systems heating and cooling coil loads. It takes into
account the part-load characteristics of the primary equipment in order to calculate the fuel
and electrical demands of the building.
ECON
The ECONOMICS subprogram calculates the cost of energy. It can also be used to
compare the cost-benefits of different building designs or to calculate savings for retrofits
to an existing building.
Weather Data
The weather data for a location consists of hourly values of outside dry-bulb temperature,
wet-bulb temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, and
(in some cases) solar radiation. Weather data suitable for use in DOE-2 is produced by
running the DOE-2 weather processor on raw weather files provided by the U.S. National
Weather Service and other organizations.
Library
DOE-2 comes with a library of building input elements, including wall materials, layered
wall constructions, and windows.
Uses for DOE-2
Because of the scope and flexibility of its input, DOE-2 can be used in many applications,
especially those involving design of the building envelope and HVAC systems, and
selection of energy conserving or peak demand reduction alternatives.
Energy Conservation Studies
Effect of the thickness, order, type of materials, and orientation of exterior walls and roofs;
Effect of thermal storage in walls and floors, and in energy storage tanks coupled to HVAC
systems;
Effect of occupant, lighting, and equipment schedules;
Effect of intermittent operation, such as the shutdown of HVAC systems during the night,
on weekends, holidays, or for any hour;
Effect of reduction in minimum outside air requirements and the scheduled use of outside
air for cooling;
Effect of internal and external shading, tinted and reflective glass, and use of daylighting.
Building Design Studies
Initial design selection of the basic elements of the building, primary and secondary HVAC
systems, and energy source;
During the design stage, evaluating specific design concepts such as system zoning,
control strategies, and systems selection;
During construction, evaluating contractor proposals for deviations from the construction
plans and specifications;
A base of comparison for monitoring the operation and maintenance of the finished
building and systems;
Analysis of existing buildings for cost-effective retrofits.
Validation of DOE-2
DOE-2 has been validated by comparing its results with thermal and energy use
measurements on actual buildings and with calculations. Detailed information on some of
the DOE-2 program validation efforts may be found in the following reports (available from
the National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA
22161):
Comparison of DOE-2 with Measurements in the Pala Test Houses. Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, Report No. LBL-37979, 1995.
DOE-2 Verification Project, Phase 1, Final Report. Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Report No. LA-10649-MS, 1986.
DOE-2 Verification Project, Phase 1, Interim Report. Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Report No. LA-8295-MS, 1981
Documentation
DOE-2.1E has the following manuals:
The DOE-2.1E Basics Manual is an introduction to DOE-2 for new users.
The DOE-2.1E Supplement to the DOE-2.1A Reference Manual (parts I and II)
The DOE-2.1E Sample Run Book.
Machine Requirements
DOE-2 versions are available for most computer platforms and operating systems.
Hardware requirements vary, but generally 32 Mb of RAM and 200 Mb of hard disk space
is required.
Impacts of DOE-2
Following is a summary of the applications and impacts of the DOE-2 building energy
simulation program.
DOE-2 is the most widely-used government-developed program for building energy
analysis in the US and 40+ other countries. It is used to achieve energy-efficient, cost-
effective building designs. Users report an average 22% reduction in energy use through
use of DOE-2. In the U.S., this has led to a savings of approximately $11B in energy costs
through 1998 (an estimate approved by the U.S. Government Accounting Office).
Building Energy Efficiency Standards: Because it is scientifically rigorous and open to
inspection, DOE-2 has been chosen to develop state, national, federal, and international
building energy efficiency standards, including:
The ASHRAE-90.1 standard for commercial buildings, which is based on thousands
of DOE-2 analyses for different building types and climates. The standard is
mandatory for new federal buildings, and has been adopted by many states for
non-federal buildings.
The ASHRAE-90.2 standard for residential buildings, which is based on 10,000
DOE-2 analyses.
The State of California standard for commercial buildings (Title 24).
Standards for other countries, such as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada,
Mexico and Australia.
DOE-2 has been used in the design or retrofit of thousands of well-known buildings.
Some examples in the U.S. are:
The White House
World Trade Center
Sears Tower
Hirschhorn Museum
Boston City Hall
New York State Capitol
Texas State Capitol
Ronald Reagan Library
U.S. State Department
NREL Laboratory
Bank of Boston
Pacific Museum of Flight
Peachtree Place
One Magnificent Mile
Examples in other countries are:
National Library (France)
New Parliament House (Australia)
Berlin Holocaust Center
Nestle' Headquarters (Switzerland)
U.S. Embassy (Berlin)
DOW Europe (Switzerland)
Renault Technocenter (France)
Citibank Plaza (Hong Kong)

DOE-2 is the basis of books and design guides on energy-efficient buildings. These
include:
Small Office Building Design Handbook
Skylight Design Handbook
Foundation Handbook
Energy and Economics: Strategies for Office Building Design Atrium Handbook
PWC Daylighting Manual and Microcomputer Spreadsheet.
DOE-2 is the source of algorithms, calculation techniques, and correlations for many
widely-used simplified methods. These include:
ASEAM-2 simplified energy analysis program
ADM-2 simplified energy analysis program
TrakLoad and LoadShaper simplified energy analysis programs
RESEM program for retrofit analysis
EEDO (Energy Economics of Design Options)
Daylighting Nomographs
Energy Nomographs
AAMA-SKY program for skylight design
ENVSTD program for ASHRAE Standard 90.1
PEAR program for residential analysis
RESFEN (Residential Fenestration Performance Design Tool)
COMFEN (Commercial Fenestration Performance Design Tool)
The private sector has adapted DOE-2 by adding interfaces that make the program
easier to use. Some examples are these:
ADM-DOE2
Compare-IT
COMPLY-24
DesiCalc
DOE-Plus
Energy Gauge USA
EnergyPro
EZ-DOE
FTI/DOE
Home Energy Saver
(LBNL)
Perform 95
PRC-DOE2
RESFEN 3.0
VisualDOE
DOE-2 has been incorporated in commercial building design software environments such
as COMBINE (European Community) and RIUSKA (Finland).
DOE-2 results on the energy-efficiency potential of different building types has been
incorporated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the U.S. Energy Information
Administration's National Energy Modeling System for predicting future energy demand.
DOE-2 is used by professional societies and industry groups for research, development,
and impact analysis. For example, ASHRAE used DOE-2 for standards development and
the Gas Research Institute (GRI) used DOE-2 to assess the energy economics of, and
thereby determine future R+D and marketing efforts for new gas technologies, including
gas-engine-driven chillers, desiccant cooling systems, direct-fired absorption cooling, and
cogeneration.
Many utility companies use DOE-2 as a key element in their demand-side management
programs to encourage energy-efficiency as an alternative to building new power plants.
For example: Northeast Utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison
offer DOE-2 analysis to architects and engineers as an incentive to designing energy-
efficient buildings. The Bonneville Power Authority (BPA) in its Energy Edge program used
DOE-2 to show the practicality of buildings that use 30% less energy than its existing
standard. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the largest investor-owned utility in the U.S.,
used DOE-2 in its ACT2 (Advanced Customer Technology Test) project to select
advanced energy efficiency retrofit measures in residential and commercial buildings.
Many States use DOE-2 to determine the potential for energy savings. For example, New
York State used DOE-2 to show that adoption of cost-effective conservation measures
would reduce statewide electricity consumption by 38%.
States and the federal government use DOE-2 to forecast the long-range cost and energy
savings of building energy efficiency programs.
The National Fenestration Council (NFRC) has used DOE-2 to develop window energy
efficiency labels.
Because of its accuracy, DOE-2 is used as a reference standard program. Two examples
of this are:
1. ASHRAE validated its widely-used simplified energy calculation method (the TC 4.7
bin method) by comparing its results with DOE-2. This comparison also led to
improvements to the TC 4.7 method.
2. The California Energy Commission certifies computer programs for use in Title 24
compliance by requiring that they agree with DOE-2 to within a certain percentage
on a set of test buildings.
DOE-2 is used in 60+ universities in the U.S. for building science research and for
teaching.
DOE-2 has been used by national labs, universities, and industry for hundreds of studies
of products and strategies for energy efficiency and electric demand limiting. Examples
include advanced insulating materials, evaporative cooling, low-E windows, switchable
glazing, daylighting, desiccant cooling, cogeneration, gas-engine-driven cooling, cool
storage, effect of increased ventilation, sizing of thermal energy storage systems, gas heat
pumps, thermal bridges, thermal mass, variable exterior solar and IR absorptance, and
window performance labeling.
DOE-2 has undergone validation by Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley
National laboratory and universities to show that that the program can accurately predict
energy use in real buildings. Such validation gives users confidence that the DOE-2
results are reliable for well-described buildings.
Developers
DOE-2 was developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Hirsch & Associates,
Consultants Computation Bureau, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National
Laboratory and University of Paris. Major support was provided by the U.S. Department of
Energy; additional support was provided by the Gas Research Institute, Pacific Gas &
Electric Company, Southern California Edison Company, Electric Power Research
Institute, California Energy Commission and others.