Simulation Software

FLUESIM.ZIP

This amazing piece of software was developed by the Research Division of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in the 1980's. It simulates a whole house "system", including envelope, chimneys, furnaces, exhaust appliances, etc. It can simulate a wide variety of conditions, and was developed originally to gain a better theoretical understanding on indoor air quality problems related to such things as carbon monoxide spillage during the startup phase of oil and gas furnaces.

A research house owned by CMHC and NRC was used to provide field data for validating the software. A number of different furnace and chimney setups were built and instrumented. This field data was then used to calibrate and fine tune Fluesim. The program was later extended to include woodburning fireplaces and stoves and called Woodsim. To use it, download the file Fluesim.zip. Unzip the files into a new directory, and read the readme.txt file for instructions. The program runs in DOS. Have fun!

SIMULATE A WOODBURNING FIREPLACE OR STOVE

WOODSIM 5.0.ZIP

This program is built on Fluesim, above. It can simulate the interaction of a house and a woodburning fireplace or stove. You can see the effect on house pressure, for example, when you switch from an open masonry fireplace with an 8x12 flue to one with a 12x12 or larger flue. A unique program, nothing else like it has ever been written.

Executive Summary

Readme.txt file for Woodsim5

Modifications and Refinement of the Computer Model "Wood Burning Simulator"

Scanada Consultants, prepared for The Research Division, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Ottawa, (1987)
(1.5 Mb PDF file)

SIMULATE A WHOLE HOUSE AND LOCAL CLIMATE

SOLAR 5.4

Written at UCLA, this sophisticated program allows you to model the energy performance of a house and its interaction with the local climate. Designed for architecture students, it is easy to use and comes with good documentation. You can add varying amounts of windows or thermal mass, for example, and see the result output as a stunning graphical "data landscape" that shows you how these factors will influence indoor temperature and energy consumption. An extremely valuable "what-if" tool for anyone designing a house and wondering about passive solar and thermal mass. Don't speculate - simulate!

CALCULATE A STANDARDIZED FUEL CRIB

Masonry_Heater_Shapes.zip
(30 Mb.)

The screenshot below is a fuel crib calculator developed by OMNI-Test

(Windows XP instructions:)

Copy the entire folder named "Masonry_Heater_Shapes" onto your C: drive
Right click on your start button and "Explore"
Click on your C: drive and find the folder marked "Masonry Heater Shapes"
and click on it.
Click on the Masonry3Installer folder and click on the "install" icon.
The Masonry Heater program will be in your program list.

As part of the ASTM standards process, the masonry heater subcommittee is proposing a standardized fueling protocol that can be used
for emissions, efficiency and safety testing.

A first step is to qualitatively compare a firing using the current draft fuel crib with a firing using a typical fuel load, for several different
sizes of heater.

The first tests were done by Lopez Labs on a 22" Heatkit heater located near the Lopez facility in Shawville, Quebec.