Parametric analysis is often needed for exploring design options, especially when a global optimization method is not available, or the optimization result is in doubt. Parametric analysis can also be applied to all design variables simultaneously, which forms an exhaustive search that, providing that the search grid is fine enough, will guarantee a global optimum solution. In order to perform complex parametric analyses on multiple parameters with more than a handful of alternative values each, a tool to generate commands for the simulation model to run, and to collect results afterwards will be needed. jEPlus has been developed as such a parametric tool for EnergyPlus. The main features include:
Complete
GUI provides utilities for setting up and managing parametric simulations using EnergyPlus
Command-line interface for easy coupling your own search algorithms with E+ simulations (since v1.1)
You can randomly sample the search space rather than run the full parametric (since v1.0)
Parameter tree for defining dependency between parameters
Flexible syntax for specifying parameter values (sampling and loading-from-file is supported since v1.0)
For a long list of parameters, you can put definitions in a CSV-styled text file and import them in the
GUI. A parameter tree will be generated for these parameters. (since
v1.2)
Supports multi-processor/multi-core systems by threading
Supports Windows/Mac/Linux versions of E+
In-built IDF editor supports syntax highlighting and text search (improved since v1.1)
Support for EP-Macro and HVACTemplate objects (since v0.5)
Simulation results are collected and combined into one CSV file for easy process
Simple statistics of the simulation results can be obtained through the post-process tab. (since v1.1)