Accuracy of the Most Popular Building Performance Simulation Tools: Experimental comparison for a conventional and a PCM-based Test Box

The dynamic thermal simulation has become a recognized instrument to predict building thermal behaviour. Many tools were developed in the last decades, which were independently validated, by considering different operating conditions, and rarely were directly compared in the same conditions. The objective of this work is to evaluate the prediction accuracy of the most popular building performance simulation tools, namely TRNSYS, EnergyPlus and IDA ICE, by means of a comparison of the simulated results and the experimental measurements detected under real operating conditions. For this issue, two different small-scale solar test boxes (STBs) with one glazed wall exposed to the outdoor environment of Rome was employed for the experimental investigation. The envelope of the reference STB is insulated and made by conventional materials. In the other case, the STB floor is equipped also with a commercial phase change material (PCM) panel. The results of this comparison have highlighted the most accurate mathematical models for the prediction of the dynamic thermal behaviour of the STB in the absence and presence of a PCM.