C041 -- Validation Of A Variable Refrigerant Flow Heat Pump Model Using ASHRAE HQ Data PDF

This paper presents the development of a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pump model aimed towards multi-year simulations. The model is modular and allows the simulation of any number of indoor and outdoor units. Model parameters are inferred from a parameter-estimation procedure on available manufacturer data. The model is compared against data recorded from the VRF system that serves the first floor of the ASHRAE Headquarters Building in Atlanta, comprised of 22 indoor units and 2 outdoor units. Comparison results show that the model predicts, for a daily time scale, the total energy consumption during a 2 months cooling period with a relative error, a normalised mean bias error (NMBE) and a coefficient of variation of the root mean square error (CVRMSE) of 4.1%, 7.9% and 20.9%, respectively. The relative error between simulation results and measured data for daily energy consumption varies from 0.2% to 43% during weekdays.