eplusout.sql[LINK]

eplusout.sql is an optional output format for EnergyPlus. The eplusout.sql output file is a sqlite3 database file (see http://www.sqlite.org) and includes all of the data found in EnergyPlus’ eplustbl.* files, eplusout.eso and eplusout.mtr output files (i.e., EnergyPlus’ standard variable and meter output files) plus a number of reports that are found in the eplusout.eio output file.

A discussion of the individual data tables is presented below followed by a discussion about how to access data within the SQL file.

List of Available SQLite Tables[LINK]

This initial release of the SQL database output option includes a variety of data in the following tables:

• ComponentSizes Table

• ConstructionLayers Table

• Constructions Table

• Materials Table

• NominalBaseboardHeaters Table

• NominalElectricEquipment Table

• NominalGasEquipment Table

• NominalHotWaterEquipment Table

• NominalInfiltration Table

• NominalLighting Table

• NominalOtherEquipment Table

• NominalPeople Table

• NominalSteamEquipment Table

• NominalVentilation Table

• ReportData Table

• ReportDataDictionary Table

• ReportExtendedData Table

• RoomAirModels Table

• Schedules Table

• Surfaces Table

• SystemSizes Table

• Time Table

• ZoneGroups Table

• Zones Table

• ZoneLists Table

• ZoneSizes Table

• ZoneInfoLists Table

• Simulations Table

• EnvironmentPeriods Table

• TabularData Table

• Strings Table

• StringTypes Table

• TabularDataWithStrings Table

• Errors Table

A short discussion of contents of each of the above SQL tables is given in the sections that follow.

Report Data[LINK]

Data in the following four tables are also found in EnergyPlus’ standard output file (i.e., eplusout.eso – see that section for more information) or in EnergyPlus’ eplusout.mtr (i.e. meter) output file. As with the standard output file, the “Report Variable” and “Report Meter” commands control the data in these tables.

ReportDataDictionary Table[LINK]

The ReportDataDictionary table provides the equivalent of the dictionary portion of the ESO file (i.e., the first section of the .eso file) or eplusout.mtr. Please see the Report Variable section of the Input-Output Reference for more information. Like in the eplusout.mtr file (see the eplusout.mtr section), only data requested by “Report Meter” commands will set isMeter to 1 or True.

ReportData Table[LINK]

The ReportData table contains the report or meter variable data (e.g., the hourly, daily, and monthly report variable data). Please see the Report Variable section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

ReportExtendedData Table[LINK]

The ReportExtendedData table contains additional data (e.g., monthly maximums and minimums) that is available for certain report or meter variables.

Time Table[LINK]

The Time table provides the time information for both the “report variable” and “report meter” variables (the ReportData table).

One time (EIO) File Data[LINK]

Data in the tables below can also be found in EnergyPlus input output file (i.e., in the eplusout.eio output file).

Zones Table[LINK]

The Zones table provides a variety of information about the zones specified within EnergyPlus. One of its most common uses is to provide zone name and area information for the other tables within the SQL database (e.g., use the ZoneIndex to look up the ZoneName).

Please see the Zone object in the Group-Thermal Zone Description/Geometry section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalPeople Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalPeople SQL table is shown below.

Please see the People object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalLighting Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalLighting SQL table is shown below.

Please see the LIGHTS object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalElectricEquipment Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalElectricEquipment SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Electric Equipment object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalGasEquipment Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalGasEquipment SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Gas Equipment object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalSteamEquipment Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalSteamEquipment SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Steam Equipment object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalHotWaterEquipment Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalHotWaterEquipment SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Hot Water Equipment object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalOtherEquipment Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalOtherEquipment SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Other Equipment object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalBaseboardHeaters Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalBaseboardHeaters SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Baseboard Heat object in the Group-Internal Gains section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalInfiltration Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalInfiltration SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Infiltration object in the Group-Airflow section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

NominalVentilation Table[LINK]

An overview of the NominalVentilation SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Ventilation object in the Group-Airflow section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

Surfaces Table[LINK]

An overview of the Surfaces SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Surface(s) object in the Group-Thermal Zone Description/Geometry section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

Constructions Table[LINK]

An overview of the Constructions SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Construction object in the Group-Surface Construction Elements section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

ConstructionLayers Table[LINK]

An overview of the ConstructionLayers SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Construction object in the Group-Surface Construction Elements section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

Materials Table[LINK]

An overview of the Materials SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Materials object in the Group-Surface Construction Elements section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

RoomAirModels Table[LINK]

An overview of the RoomAirModels SQL table is shown below. Please see the Group-RoomAir Models section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

ComponentSizes Table[LINK]

An overview of the ComponentSizes SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Sizing object in the Group-Design Objects section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

SystemSizes Table[LINK]

An overview of the SystemSizes SQL table is shown below. Please see the System Sizing object in the Group-Design Objects section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

ZoneSizes Table[LINK]

An overview of the ZoneSizes SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Zone Sizing object in the Group-Design Objects section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

ZoneGroups Table[LINK]

An overview of the ZoneGroups SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Zone Group object in the Group-Thermal Zone Description/Geometry section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

ZoneLists Table[LINK]

An overview of the ZoneLists SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Zone List object in the Group-Thermal Zone Description/Geometry section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

ZoneInfoZoneLists Table[LINK]

An overview of the ZoneInfoZoneLists SQL table is shown below.

This is a join table to represent the many-to-many relationship of zones and zone lists. ZoneListIndex and ZoneIndex together are the Primary Key for this table.

Miscellaneous Tables[LINK]

Schedules Table[LINK]

An overview of the Schedules SQL table is shown below.

Please see the Group-Schedules section of the Input-Output Reference for more information.

Simulations Table[LINK]

An overview of the Simulations SQL table is shown below. Currently there will only be one record in the table, because the SQLite database is relevant to only one simulation. In the future this might change if multiple simulations are aggregated into a larger database.

EnvironmentPeriods Table[LINK]

An overview of the EnvironmentPeriods SQL table is shown below.

TabularData Table[LINK]

An overview of the TabularData SQL table is shown below. The TabularData table is only output when the “SimpleAndTabular” choice is made in the Output:SQLite object. The TabularData table contains all of the tabular report information that is typically output to one of the formats controlled by the OutputControl:Table:Style object. This is a generic way of dumping all of the existing tabular reports to the SQLite database. This table has many references to the companion Strings table. The Strings table simply associates strings to an integer value for space efficiency of the database. Tabular data is easier to query from the TabularDataWithStrings table, which is implemented as a database view that joins this table with the Strings table.

Strings Table[LINK]

An overview of the Strings SQL table is shown below. The Strings table is only output when the “SimpleAndTabular” choice is made in the Output:SQLite object. The Strings table simply associates strings with integers to save space in the database.

StringTypes Table[LINK]

An overview of the StringTypes SQL table is shown below. The StringTypes table is only output when the “SimpleAndTabular” choice is made in the Output:SQLite object.

TabularDataWithStrings Table[LINK]

An overview of the TabularDataWithStrings SQL table is shown below. This table is implemented as a view of other tables and is not actually a table in the database. This view is similar to the TabularData table except text strings are directly available in place of foreign keys to the Strings table. The TabularDataWithStrings view is only created when the “SimpleAndTabular” choice is made in the Output:SQLite object.

An example of a SQL query to get a table out of the AnnualBuildingUtilityPerformanceSummary report is the following.

select * FROM TabularDataWithStrings WHERE
  ReportName = `AnnualBuildingUtilityPerformanceSummary' and
  TableName = `Site and Source Energy';

Errors Table[LINK]

The Errors SQL table reports errors and warnings for the simulation. The content of this table includes most of the content of the error file. However, it does not contain purely informational messages (e.g. not warnings or errors) and some of the error summary statistics which may be readily computed. Users should be aware that errors experienced while processing input cause EnergyPlus to exit before the SQLite output database has been initialized. This is because the Output:SQLite object must be parsed from the input to request the database. Therefore, failures in input processing are indicated by the absence of a SQLite output file. The regular error or audit files must be used to identify the erroneous input objects in this case. Because each error or warning message is expected to be unique these messages are stored directly in the Errors table and not in the Strings table.

How to Access the SQLite Data[LINK]

The SQL database can be accessed in a number of ways, including via the command line, through ODBC, or through as SQLite’s API interface. SQLite uses the industry standard SQL 92 language.

Command Line[LINK]

One of the simplest ways to access the data in the SQL database is by way of the SQL command line tool (i.e., sqlite3). A brief description of how to use sqlite3 for each computing platform is given below.

Windows XP and Windows Vista[LINK]

While Windows does not ship with sqlite3 installed, the sqlite3 binary can be downloaded from the SQLite webpage (www.sqlite.org/download.html). After downloading the precompiled binary, install it in the EnergyPlus directory.

Once the sqlite3 executable is installed, access the program from the command line by typing “sqlite3” at the DOS prompt.

Linux[LINK]

The sqlite3 command line tool comes preinstalled on a number of more recent Linux releases. To see if sqlite3 is available (and which version is installed), type “sqlite3 –version” from the command line. If sqlite3 is not installed, the sqlite3 binary, as well as source code, can be downloaded from the SQLite webpage (http://www.sqlite.org/download.html) and installed in the directory of your choice.

Macintosh OS X[LINK]

The sqlite3 program comes standard on MacOS X 10.5. From the command line, type “sqlite3 –version” to see which version of sqlite3 is installed. In order to access the database created by EnergyPlus, version 3 or later is required.

Accessing the Data from the Command Line[LINK]

Once it has been confirmed that SQLite3 is installed on your machine, the SQL database can be accessed by typing:

sqlite3 <database name>

at the command line, where <database name > is the name of the SQL database (e.g., sqlite3 eplusout.sql).

The sqlite.org website gives examples of how sqlite3 can be used to access and output data in various formats.

ODBC[LINK]

ODBC allows access to the SQL database from a variety of programs, including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and FileMaker. How to install and use ODBC drivers is outside the scope of this document, and more information can be found at the following websites:

Macintosh ODBC drivers:

http://www.actualtechnologies.com/

Windows and Linux ODBC information and drivers:

http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=SqliteOdbc

http://www.ch-werner.de/sqliteodbc/

API[LINK]

Sqlite3 includes a rich C++ API (detailed on the SQLite website www.sqlite.org/cintro.html), and wrappers for the API interface are available in a variety of programming languages, including Fortran, TCL, and Ruby (see www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p = SqliteWrappers for more information).