BEAVER

BEAVER [38,39] is a Windows environment for the APEC ESPII Building Energy calculation Program. It provides easy input of data, model set-up, and results' preview. The program computes building energy consumption over a defined period, taking into account climate zone and location, construction materials, and systems' types required to satisfy the desired environmental conditions. It allows parametric analysis regarding building configurations and air conditioning systems. Data input is inserted via windows wizards, which include drop-down menus and entry fields on consecutive screens going through the general Project information to individual space data and building systems, capacities, operating schedules, etc. It includes default air handling systems, primary plant, and control schemes enabling the compilation of a wide range of building services. The Air Handling system type is quite easily prepared through a graphic-based manner of the units' assembly. Various extra components and operation schedules may be imposed referring, for instance, to Heat Recovery, Preheat Coils, Exhaust Fan, Temperature reset on heating and cooling coils, etc.

An extensive application study of BEAVER for assessing building energy performance was presented by ACADS-BSG Pty Ltd. and Elms Consulting Engineers [40]. The software was used to review and provide comments on suitability of the climate zones proposed in terms of the theoretical energy use. It facilitated proposing a representative location within each zone that can be adopted to reflect the thermal resistance of the predefined buildings and define the least number of other locations required to define the thermal-response extremes within each zone. The substrates used for the review of zones were various types of office buildings with and without infiltration conditions. The software was successfully used for the revision of climate zones used as inputs to assess building energy performance.
