Renewable Energy 32 (2007) 1045–1058 Technical Note Energy software programs for educational use Petros Axaopoulos à , Georgios Pitsilis Department of Energy Technology, Renewable Energy Laboratory, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Ag. Spyridonos, 12210 Egaleo, Athens, Greece Received 29 November 2005; accepted 28 August 2006 Available online 30 October 2006 Abstract A package of six fully interactive energy software programs was developed for educational use. The first three programs can be used to simulate energy systems, while the rest three can be used to calculate some characteristic values, which can be used separately or in conjunction with the first three programs. The first one is a multimedia program for an active solar hot water system. It accounts for a large number of parameters and can be used to investigate their effect on the thermal efficiency of the system. The second program is a transient simulation for thermal behavior of a building. It can be used to predict the temperature and relative humidity inside a building along with the heating/cooling load required to keep the temperature at a preset point. The third program has been developed for sizing solar thermal systems. The fourth program is a graphical representation of the apparent motion of the sun on the celestial vault. The fifth program calculates the thermophysical properties of a number of gases and liquids for a desired temperature. The sixth program represents graphically the psychrometric chart. The above-mentioned programs, are useful tools for education in energy, suitable for high school students and Universities. It can also be used for an extensive set of exercises in the tertiary education sector. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Solar energy; Engineering software; Education; Psychrometric chart; Thermophysical properties 1. Introduction In the framework of educational activities of our Renewable Energy Laboratory, a number of energy software programs have been developed. The objective has been to develop fully interactive, fast, accurate, easy to use, and user friendly software programs ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/renene 0960-1481/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2006.08.006 à Corresponding author. E-mail address: pax@teiath.gr (P. Axaopoulos).