Reliable building energy performance characterisation based on full scale dynamic measurements

There is a marked lack of high quality datasets from real buildings (as opposed to test cells) suitable for validating the dynamic thermal simulation programs that are commonly used in predicting the energy and environmental performance of buildings. This report describes two detailed validation experiments that were undertaken on the Twin Houses, a Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP) experimental facility at Holzkirchen, Germany. The first experiment was conducted in summer 2013, the second in spring 2014. A comprehensive validation methodology was adopted, and over 20 modelling teams were involved in following the experimental specification and submitting predictions. This report describes the background to the study, details of the experiments, the main results obtained, and information on the benefits to the wider modelling community of these experimental datasets and detailed specification, which have been made available under Open Access arrangements (see Section 6.4).