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Getting Started with EnergyPlus

The remainder of this document is intended to give you a start on using the program with a few simple tools (EP-Launch to help run the simulation; IDFEditor to help create or look at input files) as well as some of the features (such as energy meters, simulation results) of using the program.

For learning about a specific input file, or a specific input object, the install includes two documents in the ExampleFiles folder:

  • Example Files Summary (highlights of each example file)

  • Example Files Links to Objects (for any object, up to 3 files using that object are shown)

The standard Windows install procedure has put the following information on your computer, in the directories/folders shown.

The main EnergyPlus folder contains: * Energy+.idd * EnergyPlus.exe and dependent shared libraries (dll files) * RunEPlus.bat and other batch files for running EnergyPlus * readme file(s), license, etc. * EP-Macro.exe and other support binaries * bugreprt.txt 

The general layout of folders from the install looks like:

. EnergyPlus main folder
+-- Documentation
|   +-- A link to find the documentation online, and any additional docs packaged with the installation
+-- DataSets
|   +-- Reference Data Sets (libraries)
+-- MacroDataSets
|   +-- Macroized Reference Data Sets (libraries)
+-- PreProcess
|   +-- FMUParser              Tool for external interface specific applications
|   +-- IDFEditor              Program files for the IDFEditor
|   +-- GrndTempCalc           Special program to calculate ground temperatures.
|   +-- WeatherConverter       Tool for performing weather file creation and conversion
|   +-- ParametricPreprocessor Parametric simulation tool
|   +-- IDFVersionUpdater      Graphical tool for updating old EnergyPlus files to the latest version
+-- PostProcess
|   +-- ReadVarsEso            The simple post processor exe.
+-- ExampleFiles               Sample input, output, results files shipped with the program.
+-- WeatherData                Sample weather files shipped with the program.