The U.K. applicability study: an evaluation of thermal simulation programs for passive solar house design

The predictions of three detailed thermal simulation programs, ESP, HTB2 and SERIRES, are compared for a range of passive solar dwellings subjected to U.K. weather conditions. From the variations in predictions, the Simulation Resolution (SR) of the programs was estimated. SR values are given for predictions of annual heating energy demands and internal air temperatures. The influence of internal convective heat transfer and glazing algorithms on inter-program variability is shown. The wider utility of SR for interpreting the significance of program predictions is discussed.