About¶
Table of Contents
Assessment Date¶
HEScore requires an assessment date. If a date is stored in the element
Building/ProjectStatus/Date
, that date is used. If not, the current date is
used.
Building Shape¶
HEScore requires specifying whether the building is a detached house or a town
house through their building.shape
input. HPXML can specify this (and a
variety of other house types) through the
Building/BuildingSummary/BuildingConstruction/ResidentialFacilitytype
data
element. Not all facility types in HPXML can be modeled in HEScore. The table
below shows how the possible enumerations of the HPXML field are translated
into HEScore.
HPXML | HEScore |
---|---|
single-family detached | rectangle |
single-family attached | town_house |
manufactured home | not translated |
2-4 unit building | not translated |
5+ unit building | not translated |
multi-family - uncategorized | not translated |
multi-family - town homes | town_house |
multi-family - condos | not translated |
apartment unit | not translated |
studio unit | not translated |
other | not translated |
unknown | not translated |
Note
For enumerations that are not translated the HPXML file will fail to run in HEScore.
For town houses HEScore requires a town_house_walls
input to be specified.
This is available in HPXML in the
Building/BuildingSummary/Site/Surroundings
element. The translation of the
enumerations is as follows:
HPXML | HEScore |
---|---|
stand-alone | not translated |
attached on one side | back_right_front or back_front_left |
attached on two sides | back_front |
attached on three sides | not translated |
If the HPXML enumeration of attached on one side
is present the translation
will determine which HEScore enumeration to select based on which side of the
house is missing windows.
Warning
- If windows are found on a shared town house wall, the translation will fail.
- HEScore cannot model townhouses that are “attached on three sides” or “stand-alone”. Using one of those inputs will result in a translation error.
Year Built, Stories, Bedrooms, Floor Height, and Floor Area¶
The HEScore inputs year_built
, number_bedrooms
,
num_floor_above_grade
, floor_to_ceiling_height
, and
conditioned_floor_area
are each retrieved from their corresponding HPXML
elements shown below.
<HPXML>
...
<Building>
...
<BuildingDetails>
<BuildingSummary>
<BuildingConstruction>
<YearBuilt>1998</YearBuilt>
<ConditionedFloorArea>2400</ConditionedFloorArea>
<NumberofConditionedFloorsAboveGrade>2</NumberofConditionedFloorsAboveGrade>
<AverageCeilingHeight>8</AverageCeilingHeight>
<NumberofBedrooms>3</NumberofBedrooms>
</BuildingConstruction>
</BuildingSummary>
</BuildingDetails>
</Building>
</HPXML>
The HEScore input floor_to_ceiling_height
will be calculated by dividing
ConditionedBuildingVolume
by ConditionedFloorArea
if
AverageCeilingHeight
is omitted.
House Orientation¶
In HPXML the orientation of a house and orientations in general can be specified
as either a compass direction (‘North’,’Southwest’,etc.) or an azimuth measured
in degrees clockwise from North. HEScore requires a compass direction for the
orientation of the front of the house. If the azimuth is available in
Building/BuildingDetails/BuildingSummary/Site/AzimuthOfFrontOfHome
the
nearest compass direction is chosen. If the azimuth is omitted from HPXML but
the OrientationOfFronOfHome
element exists, the orientation is used.
Infiltration¶
HPXML allows the specification of multiple
Building/BuildingDetails/Enclosure/AirInfiltration/AirInfiltrationMeasurement
elements, which can contain either a blower door test or a qualitative
assessment of “leakiness”. HPXML also allows the specification of multiple
Building/BuildingDetails/Enclosure/AirInfiltration/AirSealing
elements,
which can contain a qualitative assessment of “leakiness”.
Either of the elements above is required.
HEScore can be used with either a measurement from a
blower door test or by specifying whether the house has been air sealed or
not (boolean). Preference is given to a blower door test measurement when it
is available in HPXML.
Blower Door Test¶
The translator first looks for an AirInfiltrationMeasurement
with units
of CFM50. If more than one of the AirInfiltrationMeasurement
elements have units in CFM50, the last one to appear in the document is
used. If there are no measurements in CFM50, it will look for one in
ACH50. If more than one of the AirInfiltrationMeasurement
elements
have units in ACH50, the last one to appear in the document is used. If
the UnitofMeasure
element has a value of ACH, then the value is converted
to CFM using the building volume calculated by the floor area and floor height.
An example of the minimum expected elements in HPXML follows:
<AirInfiltrationMeasurement>
<SystemIdentifier id="infilt1"/>
<HousePressure>50</HousePressure><!-- Must be 50 -->
<BuildingAirLeakage>
<UnitofMeasure>CFM<!-- or ACH --></UnitofMeasure>
<AirLeakage>1234</AirLeakage>
</BuildingAirLeakage>
</AirInfiltrationMeasurement>
Air Sealing Present¶
When a blower door test is not available the translator looks for an
AirInfiltrationMeasurement
or AirSealing
that specifies an estimate of leakage.
An example of the minimum expected elements in that case looks like:
<AirInfiltrationMeasurement>
<SystemIdentifier id="infilt2"/>
<LeakinessDescription>tight</LeakinessDescription>
</AirInfiltrationMeasurement>
<AirSealing>
<SystemIdentifier id="infilt3"/>
</AirSealing>
If more than one AirInfiltrationMeasurement
is found that have the above
elements, the last one to appear in the document is used. Whether the house is
marked as having air sealing present is determined according to the following
mapping from LeakinessDescription
:
Leakiness Description | Air Sealing Present |
---|---|
very tight | True |
tight | True |
average | False |
leaky | False |
very leaky | False |
If AirSealing
is found, the enclosure of the house is assumed to be air-sealed.
Comments¶
The hpxml-hescore translator allows passing through comments. Since there’s no equivalent way to communicate this
information in HPXML under the Building
node, the translator will look for a specifically named element in extension
of Building
:
<Building>
<extension>
<Comments>Any comment</Comments>
</extension>
</Building>
If there’s no comment found in extension
element, the translator will look for the Project/ProjectDetails/Notes
element for comments. Only the first Project
node will be selected. For complicated cases
where buildings are assigned to multiple projects, using the extension element is recommended.