Monthly utility bills are often directly related to monthly energy consumption and monthly peak demand. DesignBuilder EnergyPlus' approach to tariff analysis is to allow you to model the individual component charges that make up the utility bill and report the results on a monthly basis. The calculation is organised in hierarchy for economics charges illustrated below.
Any charges included in the EnergyCharges category are added together at the first step. The EnergyCharges, DemandCharges and ServiceCharges are added together to form the Basis.The Basis, Adjustments and Surcharges are added together to form the Subtotal. And finally the Total is obtained from the summation of Subtotal and Taxes, where the Total represents the total monthly charges on that tariff for the energy source used. In addition, each category name is usually used as a source variable when setting charges and doing tariff calculation.
Multiple Tariffs can be modelled, and it is common that electric and gas utilities have more than one rate that may be used. However, only one Tariff for each Output Meter object and Group Name is shown in the Economics Summary Report. The one that is shown in the report is chosen by first eliminating Tariffs that are not qualified due to their Qualify objects. If more than one Tariff object remains, the one that has the lowest cost for a combination of an Output Meter and Group Name will be selected. If the Group Name field is not checked, then the lowest cost Tariff object is chosen for each Meter.
DesignBuilder provides access to EnergyPlus' tariff analysis capabilities by allowing you to define one or more tariffs using the Tariffs dialog. To include a tariff analysis in your simulation, start by checking the Include tariff analysis checkbox. This allows you to set the number of tariffs to be defined and to assign a Tariff component to each one.
To edit a tariff, for example Tariff 1, click on the associated browse control and use the Edit/view selected item Info panel toolbar icon. This opens the Tariffs dialog.
There are 5 tabs on the Tariffs dialog:
See also: