Performance of Residential Variable-Refrigerant Flow Systems

The two Southern California Edison projects (Phase 1 and 2) developed and implemented Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) algorithms into the eQUEST Building Energy Simulation Program. While VRF systems are applicable to both residential and small to medium-sized commercial facilities, these projects focus on residential heat pumps only. The new algorithms can be used to model small commercial facilities that use heat pumps, and do not have a dedicated outside air system. The algorithms do not support the modeling of larger commercial systems that use simultaneous heating and cooling (heat recovery), and dedicated outside air systems. However, the residential algorithms were implemented in a manner that supports their extension to larger commercial systems in the future.