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Issues and bugs

Please use this page for reporting issues and bugs in jEPlus. I am sure it has buck load of them. If you are looking for information, try do a search by pressing Ctrl-F.

[This discussion board has been closed. Please post new topics on the jeplus.org forums]

Discussion

Alex Chapin, 2009/07/23 03:08

Dear Dr Yi Zhang,

I'm having difficulty with processing the results of jEPlus. Even if I use one of the example .obj files I still only get the following files; IndexIDF.csv, IndexJobs.csv, IndexPAR1.csv, IndexPAR2.csv, and IndexWthr.csv. When I look at IndexJobs.csv it says that results are false. Also, when I click 'Start Simulation' in jEPlus, it starts the batch, completes the jobs, but then says Starting result collection … and stays that way indefinitely. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks, Alex Chapin

Yi Zhang, 2009/07/24 04:36, 2009/07/24 04:42

Dear Alex,

Thanks for trying the tool. I had to admit that it has not been thoroughly tested; so there are quite a few glitches in the GUI. “Starting result collection …” never ends is one of them. And the results column in IndexJobs.csv is a feature yet to be implemented :-(

Except these, you should have got some results after “start simulation”. Could you check the directory in which you are running jEPlus? There should be a file called “ScreenOut.txt” that contains reports from EnergyPlus. You can check whether there are any error messages. You shall also see a few new directories named “G_?-T_?-W_?-…”, which contains all EnergyPlus inputs/outputs related to the particular job. The result from each job is stored in a CSV file with similar name patterns, e.g. “G_0-T_0-W_0-PAR1_0.csv”. If you cannot find this file, EnergyPlus has probably failed to run the model, in which case you shall find some error messages in either “ScreenOut.txt” or in the .err files in the job directory.

If this doesn't help, I'll need to know more of your settings.

Cheers,

Yi

HGHAZAT MARTIN, 2009/10/01 16:25

Thank you Dr Zhang, I study EnergyPlus in Côte d'Ivoire and I wish JEPlus could help me.

Tobias Schulze, 2009/12/07 15:49

Dear Dr. Yi,

I had some similar problem than Alex had. After I copied the extracted jEplus folder to C:\jeplus (what is default in the Prog) it somehow worked.

May be that helps…

Thanks for the nice Tool

Best from Istanbul, Tobias

Daniele Lorenzini, 2011/05/18 14:27

====== Dear Dr. Yi,

I've some problem to configure JEPlus for my parametric run. I'll explain you briefly what is my purpose: I have a building and I have to study 4 different envelope configurations (2 traditional and 2 wood). For this passage is not a problem to create 4 different idf files. In each one I have to change insulation's thickness/type for 3 different construction (external wall 1, external wall 2 and ceiling) but simultaneously. For example:

run 1 ex wall 1 EPS insulation: 10cm ex wall 2 EPS insulation: 15cm ceiling EPS insulation: 10cm

run 2 ex wall 1 EPS insulation: 12cm ex wall 2 EPS insulation: 17cm ceiling EPS insulation: 12cm

…

run n ex wall 1 rockwool insulation: 10cm ex wall 2 rockwool insulation: 15cm ceiling rockwool insulation: 10cm

etc etc

With search string method I've managed to change values of external wall 1 insulation but I'm not able to add parameters for the other 2 constructions not in a tree form. 2 images can explain better:

TREE FORM - WRONG!! 3 parameters must be simulaneous! http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8295/finestre007.png

PARALLEL FORM - RIGHT! .. but not validate! http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2849/finestre008.png

What I'm doing wrong? Thank you in advance, best regards

Daniele

Yi Zhang, 2011/05/19 10:51

Dear Daniele,

So you wanted to test sets of 3 parameter values. There are two ways to do this with jEPlus. Firstly, you can put each set of 3 values in a branch of the tree. For example:

M1:@@s_M1_EPS@@{0.10} → M4:@@s_M4_EPS@@={0.15} → S1:@@s_S1_EPS@@={0.10},

and then, in parallel branches:

M11:@@s_M1_EPS@@{0.12} → M14:@@s_M4_EPS@@={0.17} → S11:@@s_S1_EPS@@={0.12}, M21:@@s_M1_EPS@@{0.08} → M24:@@s_M4_EPS@@={0.16} → S21:@@s_S1_EPS@@={0.08}, …

Note that you will unique id for each parameter, but the same search string to identify the location of that parameter in the idf file(s).

This method is a bit awkward, if you have a lot of combinations to test. The better way is to use the macro functions in EnergyPlus (look up for 'input macros' in auxiliaryprograms.pdf). With EP-Macro, you can define if-else blocks to set insulation thickness values, while using one jEPlus parameter to control which block of code to execute in the idf file(s).

Hope this helps!

Yi

Homero Noboa, 2012/06/01 18:35

Dear Dr. Zhang.

You answered me a previous question by direct email, but I think the answer to this question could be useful to other (thankful) users.

Similar to Daniele, I need to run parametric studies on different values, e.g. Chiller COP, Boiler Efficiency, Insulation Conductivity, etc. I only need two or three values for each parameter, but I need the “other” parameters to remain constant. In addition, I need to run every set for 10 different locations.

Yes, a picture is better than 1000 words.

Weather00:

01: Chiller COP 6.0, Boiler Eff 0.85, Wall Insulation k 0.02 Window: DoublePane … 02: Chiller COP 5.0, Boiler Eff 0.85, Wall Insulation k 0.02 Window: DoublePane … 03: Chiller COP 4.0, Boiler Eff 0.85, Wall Insulation k 0.02 Window: DoublePane … 04: Chiller COP 6.0, Boiler Eff 0.60, Wall Insulation k 0.02 Window: DoublePane … 05: Chiller COP 6.0, Boiler Eff 0.85, Wall Insulation k 0.10 Window: DoublePane … etc.

If I define each parameter as a parallel branch, I would get all the combinations of the parameters, that I don't need. How would you do this?

Thanks again for your work.

Homero.

Addriene, 2011/12/12 14:42

Umm, are you really just gvinig this info out for nothing?

Gerard Mor, 2012/01/18 12:35

Dear Dr. Yi,

I'm realizing a sensitivity analysis of a EnergyPlus building simulation. It would be great to use jEPlus because its an easy and friendly software, but it cannot do Monte Carlo simulations, or this is what I think. Then I have to use another software to create the Monte Carlo parameter samples and execute jEPlus with these parameters. Some people recommends me Simlab software that is also free. Do you know what I have to do? Do you ever did a Monte Carlo simulation with your software or EnergyPlus?

Thanks in advance Dr. Li, congratulations for your program!

Gerard Mor Martínez

Yi Zhang, 2012/01/18 15:06

Dear Gerard,

Thanks for your support! You can do Monte Carlo simulations with the current version of jEPlus, although there are quite a few limitations. Here is how you do it: when you create a jEPlus project, you can assign a sampling profile (PDF and sample size) to each parameter. There are only three continuous PDFs available (uniform, Gaussian and triangular), and discrete values are treated as having equal probabilities. When you run the project, choose the “a sample of [your overall sample size] jobs” option. Once all jobs have finished, you can go to the post-process tab and collect results again, this time selecting those basic statistics so you will get tables containing mean and variance of all jobs.

Now here are the limitations: you will need to use a large sample size to ensure sample uniformity, because Latin Hypercube Sampling has NOT been implemented. Secondly, jEPlus still have a memory issue, i.e. it has to create all jobs in the project, before selecting a random sample to run. If the total number of job goes beyond a few hundred thousand, it is likely to run out of memory. To get around this, you will have to do sampling externally, and run jobs using jEPlus' command-line interface. Send me an email about your problem, I will forward it to the Malaga group who have done this before. They may be able to give you more help.

By the way, Simlab is the software I would recommend, too, although I haven't used it much myself.

Yi

Niraj Poudel, 2012/04/06 15:25

Dear JEplus developers,

I would like to sincerely thank you for developing this tool and making it available to us for free. Thanks again.

Niraj Poudel Clemson University

Yi Zhang, 2012/05/09 01:09

You are welcome, Niraj! Let us know if you have done something interesting with jE+.

Pedro Faria, 2012/05/08 18:57

Dear Yi Zhang,

I would like to thank you for making this software.

I have a problem with it regarding the output ID. I've tried v1.2 buid 05 and v1.3beta with same results. With six parameter in the tree I get an output with folder name like “EP_G-T_0-W_0-P1_0-P2_0-P3_0-P4_0-P5_1-P6_0”. When I add another parameter to the tree I'm getting an output with folder name like “EP_G000000000”, “EP_G000000001” and so on. This way I cannot agregate the results for further studying.

Can you help me solving this problem? Many thanks.

Yi Zhang, 2012/05/09 01:08

Hi Pedro,

Yes this is a change I made since v1.2. When the number of parameters goes beyond 6, jEPlus stops creating full job names and uses a serial number instead. The reason for this is that full job names take up too much memory - this sounds silly, but when we are talking about half a million jobs, bytes add up very quickly.

I guess the reason why you want the full job name is to parse it to figure out which value is used for each parameter. Have you checked the SimJobIndex.csv file? It lists parameter values against job names. Combining this file to SimResults.csv you will get fully matched inputs and outputs. Hope this will solve your problem. Otherwise, please tell me how you are processing the results; I will try come up with a solution.

Regards,

Yi

Pedro Faria, 2012/05/09 11:13

Dear Yi Zhang,

Thanks for your quick reply. Your sollution seems just fine. I was checking IndexJobs.csv were ”“null”” appeared instead of applied parameter.

Best regards, Pedro Faria

Homero Noboa, 2012/06/01 20:11

Dear Dr. Zhang. Energy Plus uses the “DesignDay” to size the building's equipment. The DesignDay depends on the site location, therefore depends on the Weather file. If I run a simulation with the DesignDay for Oslo using the Rome weather, it will probably not have enough cooling capacity. To solve this problem, I would need to change the DesignDay parameters, e.g. Max Dry Bulb Temp, Temp Range, barometric pressure, etc. according to the weather file. Is there a way to do this using jEPlus? Thanks Homero.

Yi Zhang, 2012/06/08 08:26

Dear Homero, there is a 'proper' E+ solution to this problem: SizingPeriod:WeatherFileDays, and SizingPeriod:WeatherFileConditionType. Use these two options instead of the default SizingPeriod:DesignDay, E+ will then use information from the weather file for auto-sizing. You can find details of these two objects under ”Group – Location – Climate – Weather File Access” in Input-Output Reference.

Julian, 2012/07/30 10:21

Dear Dr. Zhang,

First I would like to thank you for making jEPlus.

I encountered some issues when calling jEPlus from a java program. I have the following error when running the application:

“EPlusBatch.buildJobs(): Supplied job array does not comply with project definition. 0 variables are present, whereas 1 values are given.”

Here is my jobs string in the java program (1 job and 1 parameter): {job ID=EP_0-T_0-W_0-P1_0},{index of weather file=0},{index of building model=0},{value of parameter 1=100} e.g. “EP_0-T_0-W_0-P1_0,0,0,100”. What am I doing wrong? Could you help me solve this problem?

Many thanks.

Julian

Aslhan, 2013/03/29 20:57

Dr. Zhang, I have a question about sensitivity analysis as well. I have 6-7 input parameters I would like to run. I can create input parameters using Simlab LHS for each. Sensitivity analysis requires me to run input parameters as the same time, not one after the other. So I have 300 different input values for each of the 7 parameters, a total of 2100 values. I don't want to run 2100 times, I want to run for 300 times. This should be doable but I couldn't figure it out. Thank you for your time.

Aymeric Delmas, 2013/03/02 13:39

Hello,

I would like to use JEPlus+EA. I am following carefully the instructions about how to run it but even with the samples 'Cost Example', the GUI appears but no grafs or data appear.

Regards,

Yi Zhang, 2013/03/09 15:30

Hi Aymeric,

Could you tell me what your operating system is, and whether you are familiar with jEPlus? The problem you have seems to me that E+ simulation is not running. If you have used jEPlus successfully, try copy “jeplus.cfg” in its folder to the jEPlus+EA folder. “jeplus.cfg” contains installation details of EnergyPlus on your computer.

Cheers,

Yi

Yair, 2014/07/10 17:00

Dear Dr. Zhang,

I have a a project that runs properly on jEPlus. I`ve copied the jeplus.cfg file from the jEPlus folder to that of jEPlus+EA, but still, when I open the .jep file in jEPlus+EA, validation fails as for some reason the software looks for energyPlus v.7.2.0. I have the latest energyPlus version - v.8.1.0. How can this be fixed?

Many thanks, Yair.

Guillaume Castonguay, 2013/03/20 19:45

Hello, I have successfully launched parametric simulations with the jEplus+EA package and it worked well. The problem I'm having is when I try to retrieve simulation results for all the runs. The “SimResults.csv” only show the last 4 simulation result. Is there any way this file could be in append mode to keep track of all simulated data ? Also, is there any way to re-open the GUI for a project and having access to all the results after you close it. Thank you for your good work ! Guillaume

Yi Zhang, 2013/03/22 00:42

Dear Guillaume,

If you want to run the full parametrics, you should try jEPlus instead of jEPlus+EA. In jEPlus+EA, all simulated results are available through the GUI. For example, you can find the raw E+ output of each job by clicking on the scatter plot. There isn't an option to load previous results, yet. This is one of the features I would like to include in the next version.

Cheers,

Yi

Aslhan, 2013/03/29 21:04

Dr. Zhang, I have a question about sensitivity analysis as well. I have 6-7 input parameters I would like to run. I can create input parameters using Simlab LHS for each. Sensitivity analysis requires me to run input parameters as the same time, not one after the other. So I have 300 different input values for each of the 7 parameters, a total of 2100 values. I don't want to run 2100 times, I want to run for 300 times. This should be doable but I couldn't figure it out. Thank you for your time.

Yi Zhang, 2013/04/03 21:21, 2013/04/03 21:22

Dear Aslhan,

If you have already created a sample using Simlab, you can use the put them in a text file, and then run them using the commandline facility of jE+. Here is an example of the job list file: 

G-1_10_1_20,0,1,150,0.1,Triple_6-13_LoE66_Clr_Air
G-2_6_4_17,0,2,90,0.25,Triple_4-12_LoE_Ar
G-4_23_1_21,0,4,345,0.1,Triple_6-13_LoE66_Bronze_Air
G-1_6_3_18,0,1,90,0.2,Triple_6-13_LoE55_Clr_Air

Each row starts with a unique job id (of your choice), followed by the index of weather file, the index of IDF file, and then, parameter values. Fields are separated by ',' (comma). In the above example, there are 3 different parameters in the project.

Once you have prepare the job list file, for example, jobs.lst, the following command will run the jobs: 

java -jar jEPlus.jar -job my_project.jep -file jobs.lst

Yi

Liam Hendricken, 2013/05/15 14:54

Just wondering if jEPlus supports EnergyPlus 8.0? I don't see any documentation of this on the site.

Thanks!

Liam

Ivan Korolija, 2013/05/17 13:23

Hi Liam,

It supports EnergyPlus version 8.0.

Cheers, Ivan

David C., 2013/07/10 09:09

Hello,

using the recent version of JEPlus 1.4 for parametric study with TRNSYS17 (machine W7-64bits), it was not able to collect simulation jobs results into one table as it was the case in the previous version : while the simulations actually ran well, in the end I'd got only a runtimes.csv in the output directory (no error message in it), no simjobindex.csv nor simresults_myproject.csv are written. I'd a look at the jeplus.err : Exception in thread “Thread-9” java.lang.NullPointerException 

at jeplus.agent.TrnsysAgentLocal.runResultCollection(TrnsysAgentLocal.java:216)
at jeplus.agent.TrnsysAgentLocal.run(TrnsysAgentLocal.java:168)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

so it looks like there is a problem with the collection process.

thanks for your feedback and maybe workaround in the meantime.

David

Ivan Korolija, 2013/07/11 13:21

Hi David,

We actually haven't tested it thoroughly with TRNSYS 17 due to main effort was put to E+ support. We might need you to help us with testing it with TRNSYS, if you have time of course .

Cheers,

Ivan

David C., 2013/07/12 11:05

Hi Ivan,

for sure, I may give you a feedback about the use of intermediate JEPlus versions with some of my TRNSYS test cases.

David

Yi Zhang, 2013/08/15 03:47

Hi David,

Sorry I only got around to look at the TRNSYS result collection issue. Yes there was a bug. Could you please help me test this version: http://files.jeplus.org/jEPlus_v1.5_pre_02_insel.zip with your projects? If it works, I will put up an update on SourceForge.

Cheers,

Yi

David C., 2013/08/27 21:13

Hi Yi, this new version performed well the collecting task for my trnsys test case :

Thanks for the work!

David

Yi Zhang, 2013/09/05 06:41

Excellent. Thanks, David! jEPlus+EA should work with TRNSYS, too, after this correction. I wonder if you would like to help me testing it. Drop me an email (yizhang@dmu.ac.uk) if you would.

Cheers,

Yi

Nelly, 2013/07/18 19:31, 2013/07/19 15:17

Hi,

Sorry about last time boo boo, I now notice I was following the instructions wrong. The Cost example runs fine but I have not been able to run the MO example. Here is the message I get:

at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.jdesktop.beansbinding.Property at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknow Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknow Source) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivilegde(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknow Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknow Source) at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)

I'll appreciate your help.

Nelly, 2013/07/22 19:33

Hi,

I continued working with jEPlus+EA as I would like to use it for my dissertation but I still don't understand how the objectives are set. In the Cost example there are 3 but I don't see how these values where specified or how to customize them according to my project needs.

Thank you in advance

Ivan Korolija, 2013/07/23 15:31

Hi Nelly,

The example you are referring to has 3 objectives. First is from the E+specified output:variable object Electricity facility (annual consumption). Other two are extracted from the sql database. The database is created only if you add SQLite output object to the E+ input file.

If you don't need data from the sql you can use output:variable objects to define your objectives in the EnergyPlus. These objects have to be specified in the rvi file as well.

Here is an example of objects you need to have in the EnergyPlus and how your rvi file should look like to use them as objectives (heating demand and cooling demand are objectives)

Output:Meter,Heating:DistrictHeating,annual;

Output:Meter,Cooling:DistrictCooling,annual;

rvi example:

eplusout.eso

eplusout.csv

Heating:DistrictHeating

Cooling:DistrictCooling

0

Regards,

Ivan

Nelly, 2013/07/25 17:36

Ivan,

Thank you this clarifies a lot, for me the MO Example only run after changing the .imf and .mvi for .idf and .rvi otherwise it kept asking for some files that couldn't be found. A doubt I still have is what is the difference between having eplusout.eso and eplusout.mtr in the rvi file?

Ivan Korolija, 2013/07/27 09:07

Hi Nelly,

imf and idf are types of the EnergyPlus files. If you include some EP-macro functions you need to use extensions imf. If you do that, you'll need to update your project within jEPlus (to address changes in the file name). This is also important if you change extension from mvi to rvi. You effectively changed a file name which means that you have to select this new file through jEPlus

eplusout.eso is file which stores outputs you defined by using output:variable and output:meter objects while eplusout.mtr records only outputs from output:meter objects. So if you used output:varibale object and added this variable to rvi file you won't get it.

Cheers, Ivan

Nelly, 2013/08/14 17:29

Hi,

I've been using jEPlus+EA and noticed that if in the analysis the algorithm encounters with a job that had a fatal error in EnergyPlus it can't create the next generation. I've been testing materials paramenters and some of them where too unrealistic for EnergyPlus, jEplus does not have a problem with this, it runs all the jobs but these few ones just have an empty csv file. jEPlus+EA does not disregard those with fatal errors and I guess that not being able to access the objectives values in the csv generates an issue.

Yi Zhang, 2013/08/15 03:50

Hi Nelly, could you send us your optimisation project files so we can check the behaviour of jE+EA when simulation fails? Thanks,

Yi

Ross Mckinstray, 2013/09/14 02:16

In V1.4

if you have \ in the search term. The models run in 0 second sating successful execution.

But has not actually run.

I not sure where this would be an issue. Found it just testing a file and was changing a random bit of text at the top. The exact search tag

E:\Dropbox\Energy Pluse\New

I assume this is due to it being a special charter? It not an issue for me but might cause problems for others.

Ross

Ross Mckinstray, 2013/09/14 23:38

If you want to output both named values and meter values do you have to uses SQL? I tried joining the two different output files together with mixed results. I got some but not all of the values. I have solved the issue by using SQL but I was wondering if there was a simpler solution.

MY .rvi file

eplusout.mtr

eplusout.csv

InteriorLights:Electricity

InteriorEquipment:Electricity

Heating:DistrictHeating

WaterSystems:DistrictHeating

Photovoltaic:ElectricityProduced

Cogeneration:ElectricityPurchase

Cogeneration:ElectricitySurplusSold

Water:Facility

0

!-sqlite

! Output file name; Column headers; SQL command

Comfort_ASHRAE; ASHRAE 55 Simple Model Summer or Winter Clothes Not Comfortable Time; SELECT VariableValue FROM ReportVariableData WHERE ReportVariableDataDictionaryIndex='522'

Heating_Setpoint; Zone Heating Setpoint Not Met While Occupied Time ; SELECT VariableValue FROM ReportVariableData WHERE ReportVariableDataDictionaryIndex='523'

Cooling_Setpoint; Zone Cooling Setpoint Not Met While Occupied Time ; SELECT VariableValue FROM ReportVariableData WHERE ReportVariableDataDictionaryIndex='524'

!-end sqlite

By the way the SQL video was very helpful

The SQL does the same as

eplusout.mtr

eplusout.csv

BLOCK1:ZONE1,Zone Thermal Comfort ASHRAE 55 Simple Model Summer or Winter Clothes Not Comfortable Time

BLOCK1:ZONE1,Zone Heating Setpoint Not Met While Occupied Time

BLOCK1:ZONE1,Zone Cooling Setpoint Not Met While Occupied Time

0

Ivan Korolija, 2013/09/16 22:56

Hi Ross,

You can have outputs from bot variables and meters in one file if you replace eplusout.mtr with eplusout.eso since meter's outputs are recorded in the eso file as well.

The SQL query can extract same outputs as you can get if output variables/meters are used. However, there are some additional outputs in the SQL which you cannot extract with e+ variables/meters such as floor areas or size of the equipment.

Cheers, Ivan

Gonzalo Saavedra, 2013/10/18 23:43

Hello

I did some basic tests with the program but it does not collect the results. I get the message:

”… Local batch simulation controller is FINISHED [Que=0, Run=0, Fin=5] … Standard simulation result collector collected 0 reports in C: \ … … ”

I verify that all partial results are calculated but “SimResults.csv” file is empty. How I can fix it?

thanks

thanks

Ivan Korolija, 2013/10/19 12:36

Hi Gonzalo, The first thing I would check is the rvi file. If you didn't set the rvi file correctly you won't be able to collect results in the SimResults.csv file. Does the eplusout.csv exist in each of the results subfolders? Also, if you demanded a lot of EnergyPlus outputs on the hourly/timestep level, you might run out of memory before results were saved in the SimResults.csv file.

Abraham Yezioro, 2013/10/31 12:41

Hi, This is not a but but surely (for me) it is an issue and maybe a feature i want to have. How do you recommend to parametrize Window SIze. I want to check different alternatives changing this parameter. Is it possible? Thanks, -A.

Yi Zhang, 2013/11/04 22:23

Hi Abraham, this is a question for Ivan to answer - he has a nice little trick for calculating window coordinates using a combination of parameters and E+ EMS functions. For a small number of alternative sizes, however, you may try the combinatorial parameter definition syntax (see: http://www.jeplus.org/wiki/doku.php?id=docs:manual_1_4#combinatorial_parameters)…

Ivan Korolija, 2013/11/08 13:03, 2013/11/08 13:07

Hi Abraham, this is a tricky question to answer. Depends a lot on the size of the building and a number of windows. In general, I was able to think about two approaches. Both are labour intensive. First is to parametrise coordinates of each windows. Here is an example: 

 ##set1 Left @@L@@
 ##set1 Bottom @@B@@
 ##set1 Top @@T@@
 ##set1 Right @@R@@
 ##if #[Top[] LE Bottom[]]
 ##set1 NewTop #eval[Bottom[] + 0.10]
 ##else 
 ##set1 NewTop Top[]
 ##endif
 ##if #[Right[] LE Left[]]
 ##set1 NewRight #eval[Left[] + 0.10]
 ##else 
 ##set1 NewRight Right[]
 ##endif
 FenestrationSurface:Detailed,
  Win,  !- Name
  Window,                  !- Surface Type
  Win1,                    !- Construction Name
  SouthWall, !- Building Surface Name
  ,                        !- Outside Boundary Condition Object
  0.5,                     !- View Factor to Ground
  ,                        !- Shading Control Name
  ,                       !- Frame and Divider Name
  1,                       !- Multiplier
  4,                       !- Number of Vertices
  Left[], -10, Bottom[],    !- X,Y,Z  1 {m}
  NewRight[], -10, Bottom[],     !- X,Y,Z  2 {m}
  NewRight[], -10, NewTop[],     !- X,Y,Z  3 {m}
  Left[], -10, NewTop[];    !- X,Y,Z  4 {m}

You need to specify bottom left and top right coordinates and assign parameters which are function of surface length and height. If loops are here to assure that there is always a window with minimum 10cm x 10cm.

Second approach is to define different window size options in separate files (for example 25%, 35%, etc) and to include them in the main idf file by using EP-macro. The example can be found here: http://www.jeplus.org/wiki/doku.php?id=examples:projects:benchmark

Cheers, Ivan

Abraham Yezioro, 2013/11/05 13:23

Thank you Yi, I'll wait however for Ivan's trick … -A.

Liam Hendricken, 2014/02/13 02:30

Dr. Zhang and Dr. Korolija,

I am using the latest release of jEPlus+EA, but I'm running into problems with the number of permutations during optimization. When I open my .jep in jEPlus and validate I get the correct number of jobs for 13 parameters (~30,000,000). However, when I validate the same .jep in jEPlus+EA I am only getting jobs for the final 5 parameters, all previous parameters fixed on baseline setting (180 jobs).

I made sure that my parameters are in tree form, not parallel form. I have run another jEPlus+EA project with a similar number of parameters successfully. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Liam

Liam Hendricken, 2014/02/13 03:27

Dr. Zhang and Dr. Korolija,

I reviewed the .jep again, and decided to delete and redefine my parameter tree (I remember moving the parameter definitions around previously between parallel and branch configurations), and it seems that the simulations are running properly now.

Would there be any way you can think of to review the .jep file in the future to identify these issues/screen files?

Thanks,

Liam

Yi Zhang, 2014/02/20 21:25

Dear Liam,

We only check the discussion board occasionally, so sorry for the delay. I am not sure what could have caused the issue. If you still have a copy of the erroneous project, please send me a copy to have a look. Since optimization can use only one branch, and with the introduction of compound parameters, the tree structure seems to be redundant, now…

You may find it easier to edit the parameters using a flat file. You can prepare the list of parameters in a table, in CSV format; and then import them into the project. To see an example, use one of your own projects and use the “Export parameters to CSV” command in the “Edit” menu.

Cheers,

Yi

luca guj, 2014/05/11 15:26

Dear Dr Yi Zhang,

I'm currently using JEplus+EA in order to identify the surface description of a building roof, i.e. the thermal, solar and visible absorptances. In order to achieve my goal I have 5 month temperature readings of my surface so I have defined the following objective function:

obj=abs[average(E+ roof temp)-average(experimental roof temp)]

and I have provided the following range for the solar, thermal and visible absorpatances:

[0.01:0.01:0.99]

The job run without problem but I have noticed that JEplus+EA doesn't show clear convergence to the best solution, instead the objective function fluctuate up and down. Moreover the red individual for each generation is not always the smallest as it should be since I'm trying to minimize the objective function. Maybe I have to set some parameter to force JEplus+EA to work as a single objective optimization algorithm? Am i doing some other error?

Moreover I have tried to increase the individuals number fro 10 to 20 and I waited for long time before giving up and stop the simulation, so is this normal? If I increase from 10 to 20 the number of individuals per generation the waiting time grows tremendously? Do you think that in general increasing the number of individuals can help my problem?

Thanks in advance for your support,

Luca Guj

Joan Carreras, 2014/07/16 10:49

Hello everyone; I want to change many variables in my IDF file and I want to change them in parallel. Like in every simulation I have about 10 variables and I want to change them together in each simulation. So is this achievable and if yes how can I do that? Thanks. Best regards; Joan Carreras

Liam Hendricken, 2014/07/16 15:53

Joan,

You should be able to use the “Job list in file” option on the Execution tab. See section 6.3 of the user manual to understand the syntax for each job to be run. Alternatively, you can use the combinatorial variables option described in section 4.5 of the user manual.

Dr. Zhang and Dr. Korolija, please feel free to correct me.

Liam

Yi Zhang, 2014/09/02 23:41

Dear Liam,

Your answers are spot on! I guess a job list file is the better option as Joan has 10 variables to change at once.

Cheers,

Yi

Jordi Cipriano, 2014/08/11 14:18

Dear Yi Zhang,

I'm testing jEplus with TRNSYS 16 in batch mode and I have the same problem that was reported by David one year ago. When I run the simulations, jEPLUS doesn't create the integrated file “SimResults…csv”. This only happens when JEPLUS is run through the Windows console. Do you think it is a bug or it's a lack of the proper instruction in the execution command?

Many thanks,

Jordi

Yi Zhang, 2014/09/02 23:38

Dear Jordi,

Sorry we were not checking this discussion board regularly… Did the example TRNSYS project included in the distribution package work on your computer. If it didn't, there must be some configuration issues…

Yi

navid, 2014/08/13 14:37

Dear Dr. Yi Zhang Yizhang: Thanks So Much For Your Great Jeplus Site. 1) How Can I Make A RVI/MVI File [Step By Step Please] For My Own Jeplus Project, Exactly? 2) I Would Like To Model A Building In Energyplus(.Idf) And So, Make A Jeplus Project(.Jep) And Link Jeplus Project(.Jep) To MATLAB .Am I Right Dear Dr Or I Am In A Wrong Way?[Dr, I Myself Want to Code to Optimize in MATLAB , Not Using jEplus+EA Software). Many Many Thanks And Regards Your Sincerely Navid Delgarm

Alex, 2014/08/16 11:44

Hi everybody: I Am Going to Model A Building In Energyplus And Use Jeplus As An Interface Between MATLAB And Energyplus .How Can I Couple Jeplus Project(.Jep) To MATLAB OptimizationToolBox To Optimize My Decision Variabels In MATLAB (step by step please),and Of Course I am Not Familiar With Java .Any Idea Please???Thanks Best Daniyal

Yi Zhang, 2014/09/02 23:26

Hi Daniyal,

I cannot give you an example at the moment; but the principle steps are as below:

  1. Prepare your decision variable values for each case in Matlab
  2. Write the cases to a jEPlus job list file (look up this term within this page for an example)
  3. Call jEPlus from Matlab using Matlab's system function (see: http://www.mathworks.co.uk/help/matlab/ref/system.html)
  4. The jEPlus commandline should be similar to this: 
    java -jar jEPlus.jar -job example_E+v8.0/HVACTemplate-5ZoneFanCoil.jep -file joblist.txt

    See here for more details.

  5. When system() returns, load simulation results from SimResults.csv to complete the cycle.

Yi

Alex, 2014/08/16 13:15

Hi navid To be clear, you create the rvi file yourself, Yes, use a text editor, Wordpad will work. Then your first try only put in 2 variables and run the simulation and look at the csv file. Then change the rvi and run the simulation again and check the csv file again. You will get the hang of it quickly best

navid, 2014/08/17 13:43

Hi Daniyal.Thanks so much to respond to my Question.and Of course i have a problem like you to Couple JEplus to matlab or another Optimization tools.Tanks very very much Dear Daniyal again.

navid, 2014/08/17 13:47

Hi everybody:If anybody Knows How to to Couple JEplus to matlab or another Optimization tools,Tell us please.He/She Will Help me so much.Thanks All. Best Navid

Yi Zhang, 2014/09/02 23:28

Hi Navid,

See if my reply to Daniyal's question above helps…

Yi

navid, 2014/09/03 12:09

Thanks so much Dear Dr Yi.I Will Do That soon,and I will aware you about it. All the Best Navid