In order to facilitate detailed solar system simulations and to make such simulations readily available to solar engineers in their daily practice of system dimensioning and performance calculations, user friendly software for personal computers has been developed as a system specific simulation program for a frequently installed group of water based solar system types. The program package has been developed as part of the OPSYS R&D-program of the Commission of the European Communities and has been named EURSOL. The set of system configurations considered includes different types of thermal solar systems for space heating and hot water production. The simulations are based on validated physical system models. The program offers complete freedom with regard to all parameters describing the systems and includes on-line help, economic evaluations and graphical output. This book describes the system considered in EURSOL, the mathematical algorithm, the physical model of each component used, the processing of solar radiation data and the economic evaluation criteria. Although the book is mainly a manual for the use of the simulation program, it is also a guide for the development of simplified simulation models for solar systems.

I: EMGP3 USER GUIDE.- II: INTEGRATION ALGORITHMS.- III: METEOROLOGICAL DATA FILES AND DATA PROCESSING.- IV: EMGP3 COMPONENT MODELS.- V: EXAMPLES OF EMGP3 SIMULATIONS.- Annex A: EMGP3 INPUT FILES: Preparation, Limitations, and Data Sequence.- Preparing an EMGP3 simulation.- Limits imposed to EMGP3 configurations.- EMGP3 input file data sequence.- Annex B: TABLES OF INPUT PARAMETERS.- Types of parameter tables.- Use of the parameter tables.- Tables EL-1 to EL-41: System element parameters.- Tables CR-1 to CR-15: Controller parameters.- Tables SV-1 and SV-2: Switching valve parameters.- Tables HP-1 and HP-2: Heat pump parameters.- Tables ES-1 to ES-22: Excitation function and subsystem parameters.- Annex C: LIST OF ERROR MESSAGES.

The events leading up to the publication of this book started effectively in 1976 with the exchange of information between those modelling teams in Europe which were involved in the R&D-programme on Solar Energy of the Commission. When it became clear that the availability of experimental datafor model validation wm next to nothing, the Commission took the initiative to support in the frame of the Solar Energy R&D-programme the construction of Solar Pilot Test Facilities on eight sites in Europe. Each experimental facility consisted of two real solar heating systems with collectors, storage, controls, and msociated piping, but with the dwelling thermal distribution system replaced by a physical load simulator. One of the two systems on each site wm a reference system and wm identical for the eight participating teams. The simulator wm capable of producing a typical themalload for a house, interactive with the actual weather, and took into account the effects of the occupants. With datafrom these facilities not only were national simulation programs validated, but also the meanwhile commonly accepted modular structured European program EMGPl wm validated. EMGPl, which only could be run on a mainframe computer or under special conditions on a mini-computer, formed in tum the bmis for the development of EURSOL andEMGP3.EMGP3 is an improved userjriendly programpackagejorpersonal computers derived jrom EMGPl and includes a unique and user jriendly preprocessor.