dragonfly-energy

What it is and what it does

Dragonfly-energy is an extension to the Dragonfly building-modeling framework that adds energy-simulation capabilities. It bridges 2D building geometry (rooms, stories, buildings) to energy-analysis workflows by integrating with EnergyPlus for detailed thermal simulation, OpenStudio for advanced modeling, and URBANopt for district-scale urban energy analysis. The package lets you assign energy properties (program types, HVAC systems, window ratios) to building geometry and then export models to industry-standard formats like IDF or geoJSON for simulation.

Typical workflow: define building geometry using Dragonfly's 2D room and story abstractions, assign energy program types and window parameters, convert the model to Honeybee format, and export to IDF or URBANopt geoJSON for simulation. The package handles the translation between Dragonfly's simplified geometric model and the detailed energy-simulation requirements of EnergyPlus and related tools.

Use it for:

• Model office, residential, or mixed-use buildings and estimate annual energy consumption and peak loads via EnergyPlus.
• Analyze district-scale energy performance by exporting building models to URBANopt for multi-building urban simulations.
• Parametrically test window-to-wall ratios, HVAC strategies, and program types on 2D building layouts before detailed design.
• Convert Dragonfly building models to Honeybee for integration with other Ladybug Tools workflows and advanced thermal analysis.
• Generate IDF files for EnergyPlus simulation directly from Python scripts without manual model setup.
• Export building geometry and energy properties to geoJSON for visualization and analysis in GIS or URBANopt platforms.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Extends Dragonfly to model building energy performance, converting 2D building geometry into energy simulations via EnergyPlus, OpenStudio, and URBANopt.

Yes. The package is actively maintained (released 2026-08-14), has low install friction, and integrates cleanly with the established Ladybug Tools ecosystem. It fills a clear role for developers and analysts building energy-simulation workflows in Python. The AGPL-3.0 license is a consideration for proprietary projects but standard in open-source building-simulation tools. No known vulnerabilities.

Install

dragonfly-energy on PyPI

pip install dragonfly-energy

uv add dragonfly-energy

poetry add dragonfly-energy

Installing dragonfly-energy

Before you install

Low friction install with active maintenance—released within the last day and actively developed. Depends on dragonfly-core and honeybee-energy, both standard in the building-simulation ecosystem.

License in practice

Licensed under AGPL-3.0, which requires that any modifications or derivative works be released under the same license and made available to users. This is a strong copyleft obligation suitable for open-source projects but may constrain proprietary use.

Quickstart

pip install dragonfly-energy

from dragonfly.model import Model
from dragonfly.building import Building
from dragonfly.story import Story
from dragonfly.room2d import Room2D

# Create building geometry and assign energy properties
room = Room2D('Office', Face3D(points), 3)
story = Story('Floor', [room])
building = Building('Building', [story])
model = Model('Project', [building])

# Convert to honeybee and then to IDF for simulation
hb_models = model.to_honeybee('Building', use_multiplier=False, tolerance=0.01)
idfs = [hb_model.to.idf(hb_model) for hb_model in hb_models]

Requires dragonfly-core and honeybee-energy to be installed; EnergyPlus or OpenStudio SDK must be separately installed for actual simulation execution.

Verify before relying

• Whether EnergyPlus or OpenStudio SDK installation is required before using this package or only when running simulations.
• Performance characteristics or scalability limits for large urban models or multi-building projects.
• Specific Python version support—classifiers list 2.7 through 3.12, but requires_python is unspecified.

Package facts

Evidence: dragonfly_energy-1.45.20-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Scientific/Engineering packages