Welcome to accim 1.1.0’s documentation!

accim (Adaptive-Comfort-Control-Implemented Model) is a Python package for EnergyPlus building energy models. It transforms models with fixed setpoint temperatures into models with adaptive setpoint temperatures, which follow the outdoor temperature as an adaptive thermal comfort model does, by adding the Adaptive-Comfort-Control-Implementation Script (ACCIS) to the IDF files.

The figure below shows the aim of adaptive setpoint temperatures: keeping the hourly indoor temperatures within the adaptive comfort zone. It plots the hourly operative temperature (green) against the running mean outdoor temperature, with the adaptive cooling (blue) and heating (red) setpoints of ASHRAE 55, for two cities in the present and in 2100. On the left, the simulation results of a naturally ventilated building; on the right, the same building in mixed-mode operation with adaptive setpoint temperatures.

Hourly operative temperatures of a naturally ventilated building and of the same building in mixed-mode operation with adaptive setpoint temperatures

With accim you can:

  • apply the adaptive setpoint temperatures of the predefined comfort models (international, regional and local) or of a custom model, with air-conditioning, natural ventilation or mixed-mode operation (3. Quick tutorial, 4. Detailed use and explanation of arguments);

  • apply setpoints based on the adaptive predicted mean vote (aPMV) (Applying aPMV setpoints);

  • rename the weather files, run the simulations (with the Energy Management System of EnergyPlus, or through its Python API) and make tables and figures of the results (How-to Guides);

  • run parametric studies, sensitivity analyses and multi-objective optimisations of these controls (Overview of parametric simulation and optimisation);

  • do the main steps without writing Python, with a graphical user interface (the command accim-gui, 4.10 Graphical user interface).

If you are new to accim, start with 1. Requirements, 2. Installation and 3. Quick tutorial. If you used accim 0.x, see 9. Migrating from accim 0.x to accim 1.0.0: since accim 1.0.0, the names follow the conventions of Python, and the old names still work.

User guide:

How-to Guides:

Parametric simulation and optimisation:

API Reference:

Documentation for previous versions:

Indices and tables