# TRNSYS Reviews **Vendor:** TRNSYS Project **Category:** [Simulation & CAE Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/simulation-cae) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 23 ## About TRNSYS TRNSYS is a software for dynamic simulation of renewable energy systems, HVAC systems, building energy use and both passive and active solar systems. ## TRNSYS Reviews ### 1. TRNSYs for building energy simulations **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** I found TRNSYS very useful as it can take almost every parameter which effect building performance and very good for building energy simulations.Its a very good tool for energy analyst and quite flexible in term of use. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** Help tool should be little more elaborative so that a beginner in this field can use this tool effectively and even I feel little more should be done for the analysis of adaptive facades in buildings as future is more of adaptive facades. making connection for graphical interface is little complicated in the beginning, which can be made more user friendly. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** A very powerful tool for doing building energy simulation . Highly recommendable if you know the basics about building specifications and other parameters. Can be used for calculation heating and cooling demand of a building . using renewable resources such solar energy , wind energy for extracting energy from it and using it in the building to reduce the overall heating or cooling demand. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used TRNSYS for my energy efficient building’s course, it’s a very powerful tool for doing analysis of a building for parameters such as heating loads, cooling loads, and checking the impact of variation of ventilation and infiltration on the building overall on their energy demands. Even deciding different geothermal heat plant or cooilng through natural ventilation can be incorporated .its a very flexible tool.We can us PV or solar panel for designing heating plants or even wind mill in the region where it can be applied ### 2. Great tool for analyzing various problems in energy systems **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Karolis J. | Energijos vartojimo efektyvumo skyriaus vadovas / Head of energy efficiency division, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 03, 2021 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** The TRNSYS has a modular approach for constructing models, by following the idea that each problem may be subdivided into smaller problems. Due to various existing components ("types") it becomes possible to create a model of the problem by employing different levels of detailness - from "black box" models that just gives results from inputs, to "white box" models (by coupling with computational fluid dynamic tool Fluent). The existing library is pre-filled with the most components required for creating the models for energy systems. If the project requires a more advanced approach, there are options to couple with external programs or implement your own calculation logic with an internal calculator tool; external ESS tool or couple with Matlab code. There is extensive documentation that provides mathematical logic behind existing calculation components. Have utilized the TRNSYS for scientific research during the master and PhD studies. The outcomes of my work were published in 12 peer-reviewed articles. The core of my MsC and PhD work is done with TRNSYS. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** With the complexity and flexibility comes difficulties to lear the tool for a beginner. The basic ideas of model creation are quite simple and easy to understand, but building the understanding about the validity of the simulation results and verification may take more time than it will in the tools designed for daily engineers work to solve regular problems. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Great tool for research: for creating the models, exploring the problems and examining the systems in detail before building the prototypes. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Trnsys is really great for exploring the problems related to building energy systems. The simple conceptual system could be built up from scratch and after performing parametric analysis the limitations of the set up may be easily identified. The parametric may be easily done with TRNSYS internally. While the input calculation file is text-based, it is easy to integrate TRN.exe execution to Python or Matlab code where data analysis and chart creation could be easily automated. ### 3. Review of the TRNSYS 18 **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dr. Arunendra K T. | Postdoctoral Research Associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2021 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** I have been using TRNSYS to model a solar thermal systems for more than 1 year. it is easy to use and learn **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** It is very costly. If the cost can be reduced. Also, there is no training module available. only two training available online that too on a payment basis. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** It is a good software for solar thermal analysis. I recommend others working in solar thermal can be benefitted from thermal analysis of components in a short time. Learning TRNSYS is a tricky thing as no materials are available online except for solar hot water tutorials. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using it to model the solar thermal system ### 4. A mechanical engineering student review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ivana G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** TRNSYS has a detailed manual that explains how each model works. It's very user-friendly and great for solving a variety of problems. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** One needs some time adjusting to the interface, but after a week or so of using it, it becomes very intuitive. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** If you have some difficulties understanding components (Types), the manual describes in great detail the mathematical background of each one. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used TRNSYS as a student to calculate the residential building energy need for heating and cooling. Also, it allowed me to optimize heating losses by varying window type and insulation thickness. After the initial set up of a building in TRNBulid, the calculation was very fast, and additional changes were effortless to make. TRNSYS is very user-friendly and has a big library of models that help to simulate the behavior of different transient systems. ### 5. Models and simulates the complex real world problems in a simple way **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** Complex problems can be easily modelled. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** User friendly but needs effort to learn. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Analyzed improvements in energy efficiency in a residential apartment in Auroville, India using TRNSYS software. The study is conducted to analyze the energy efficiency and suggests improvement for an apartment in Kalpana Housing Project. Using measurements from the building drawings, the whole building model is developed in Sketch Up. Then the model is transferred to TRNSYS for developing the Energy model of the apartment. In TRNSYS, the building is oriented in its right direction. Building materials are assigned to walls, doors, and windows. Using TRNSYS, following recommendations are formulated, The orientation of the building is an important factor to be considered and on walls with high irradiation shaded veranda and shades must be used. Windows with lower g-value is better in reducing solar gain. External shading and Internal shading using curtains are cheap and very effective ways to reduce the solar gain. Increasing air exchange rate using exhaust fans and solar chimney can reduce the average temperature inside the room. ### 6. HVAC system with Desiccant Wheel and solar system **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kashaf N. | Operations Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 24, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** A very powerful software for transient systems and its graphical interface for solar based projects is the best. Also we can use the add on softwares with TRNSYS LIKE MATLAB, Excel or many more. Also we can get the simulations data for up to 10 years. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** Sometimes the TRNbuild provide some errors but still i must appreciate and recommend to use this software. Wherever in this time of world these types of softwares will be beneficial. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** TRNSYS helps in solving solar thermal processes, power plants simulations, HVAC systems, wind and photovoltaic cells and many more applications. I had the benefit that i want to take the data of solar system working for year around application to see the working of desiccant wheel air conditioning system plus it also allow me to create a building of my desire on TRNbuild with the desired dimensions and structure. So it helped me a lot in my final year project. ### 7. Powerful and user friendly **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ashkan R. | Project Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 06, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** I would like the user friendly and graphical view of the platform **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** It is very complicated at first and lacks great tutorial and step by step instruction **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Yes defiantly if they could spend some time learning about the feature of the software and the powerful information they could gain from it they would defiantly shift to TRNSYS as it could in a long run improve the calculation and enhance the design. That being said, the result and visualizations information would be very beneficial for modification in the systems **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** The energy modeling and calculations about the loads. The graphics and results are really good for visualization and identify the problems to improve the system. ### 8. adnan **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 25, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** TRNSYS group help, I used TRNSYS for BES of Greenhouse and found TRNSYS very promising tool to run simulations of greenhouse **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** CFD no longer be coupled with TRNSYS 18. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** highly recommend for building energy modeling and energy system modeling **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** BES model for greenhouse with real greenhouse operating and physical conditions. ### 9. Civil Engineer **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adham Z. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 21, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** I used TRNSYS in my final year project, it was a research project about geothermal energy and its applicability in my country Lebanon. The best part is the ability of using the country's weather data to simulate the performance of buildings and geothermal systems. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** Well TRNSYS was very useful in our case and I don't recall any significant disadvantages. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** TRNSYS is a very useful tool to be used in all simulations related to energy. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using TRNSYS I can simulate and obtain optimal geothermal energy system based on the calculated thermal loads of any structure. ### 10. Division head of energy efficiency and reneable energy **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nidal Yacoub A. | Bio energy division manager and Energy efficiency & Solar thermal expert, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2021 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** the outputs from the TRNSYS simulation are more accurate than many other simulation programs. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** difficult and tedious to find the source of the errors. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Determining the number of hours needed to raise the temperature of the HFO tanks for the bare and for insulated tanks. ### 11. A building simulation software with infinite possibilities **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bridjesh G. | PhD Fellow, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 03, 2021 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** TRNSYS comes with many libraries and components. The documentation is wonderful and open. The most important feature for me is that you can create your own components with a mathematical description that fits your application. Definely recommended for research. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** Nothing really! However, I would want a better sync with Genopt. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used TRNSYS to analyse different HVAC designs with solar PV, solar thermal collectors, and Heat pumps. TRNSYS is easy to learn and flexible to include noble components ### 12. TRNSYS user 1-3 YEARS genuine review. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tarun R. | Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** TRNSYS Modeling is super-easy and very user friendly. It gives a better understanding to the user with default library options. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** Sometimes the processing time is long and some detailed warnings are missed on occasions that may help user to improve his/her compatibility with the tool. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Spend some time on this tool to get familiar with all the features available. Once you are very equipped with the library and modeling options, you will definitely enjoy the speed of simulations and your work progress will be smooth. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used it for Renewable Energy assisted VCRS cycle. Here we have modelled and simulated a 10ton Refrigeration System for a small building air conditioing. ### 13. TRNSYS Feedback **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 08, 2021 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** It has a great variety of applications which allow to accurately simulate any thermodynamic system. Visible code helps of better understanding of components. Furthermore, it is good that one can make his own component to model a system. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** When simulating large scale systems it becomes very complex and some components work with a very unorthodox way and cannot be used due to the "weird" connectivity they require. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solar thermal problems. TRNSYS has a great variety of solar thermal collectors and the whole equipment used to model those systems. ### 14. Very good software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Srini v. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 26, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** Simulation part being very good. Especially linking the parameters with the equipments I like the most **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** The UI & theme of your's were like bit old style while comparing with the modern softwares. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Improve theme and UI. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used Trnsys in my final year Master's project on compressed air energy storage. And it helped me in many ways. With the help of this software I could predict and correct the errors before doing that practically, which saves my time and money. ### 15. During my PHD I realized that TRNSYS is one of the best solutions to design complex systems. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stefano A. | Tecnologo, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 01, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** The possibility to test the control strategies of the system your working on, also from a research point of view. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** The parameter connections graphical interface could be improved. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** When approaching TRNSYS take it seriously, is not easy to use at the beginning but after a while you will get great reliable results. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've been able to show to my partners where the performance problem was and how it could be solved. The graphical interface could be improved. ### 16. Best **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** Versatile software and a good user interface. building modelling is quite easy compared to other building energy simluation software. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** lack of learner's support. Expensive and hence is not reachable to everyone. It has sudden errors sometimes which disappears after a few minutes. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Lack of materials **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Building simulations, just trying to understand the software ### 17. It was very good experience **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2021 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** The toolbars are clear and direct, user friendly. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** I didn't like the visuals and the result graphs **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Yes **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am designing the solar project of Tunisia with the help of it ### 18. A flexible tool for transient simulations **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** The possibility to code new modules in fortran. The ability to graphically represent the models. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** Sometimes it is a bit cumbersome to navigate through the model and the many links. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** It is a very useful and well recognized tool in the solar energy industry. I would recommend it to everyone thinking to model in this field **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CSP simulations on a yearly basis. The main benefit was the possibility to interface it with matlab through txt files ### 19. Powerful building thermal load simulation tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 08, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** It is very fast and providing accurate simulation results. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** the price is very expensive and there is no training centre in Malaysia. **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Should have a training centre in malaysia **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** building thermal load ### 20. Good experience. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 06, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** The dynamic simulation of several energy sources **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** It's take a long time to do some simulations **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Reduce the simulation time **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Energy storage problems ### 21. The best simulation tool for solar heating and cooling **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 24, 2020 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** Simulation and design tools. Automated networks and can choose different types of equipments from the list **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** Not much of big support to Solar PV installation **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used this software for my final thesis and also published a journal paper on solar collectors ### 22. Trnsys simulation and modelling **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Saunak S. | Assigned Design Engineer | Tetra Tech, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 21, 2018 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** Library has lots of HVAC components that one can pick and choose from and simulate the performance of that HVAC system. Does building simulation for a combination of complex HVAC mechanisms and is way better than eQuest as in it doesn't ask for gazillion questions prior to making a building envelope. Very widely used software that I recommend academic institutions to start using so that they can train the future generation of engineers. **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** The interface isn't intuitive at times and the white space isn't use at its best. I have ot change the default screen resolution whenever I run it on my laptop **Recommendations to others considering TRNSYS:** Follow the manual, unlike the manuals made by other softwares this one actually walks you through tutorials that are extremely helpful. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Predicting smart fuel dual switching system behavior. Learnt about the savings in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, capital cost savings, operating cost savings, and payback period etc. Very accurate representation of the actual energy consumption through the building envelope. ### 23. software environment for transient systems **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 16, 2017 **What do you like best about TRNSYS?** users can modify the existing components and write their own code for the environment **What do you dislike about TRNSYS?** user interface is okay and the speed to generate is also okay. **What problems is TRNSYS solving and how is that benefiting you?** trying to build a graphics simulator software using TRNSYS. ## TRNSYS Discussions - [Can you a detailed introductory](https://www.g2.com/discussions/35698-can-you-a-detailed-introductory) - 1 upvote - [E](https://www.g2.com/discussions/35607-e) - 1 upvote - [View TRNSYS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/trnsys/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-18+06%3A49%3A03+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=b7aeb480-a4c0-474c-a954-92f0d6540c6e&secure%5Btoken%5D=78abdf8b062ca69bce01e441365c2c169806ed66d75d5b53451ad8a2784b48e7&format=llm_user) ## TRNSYS Features **Design** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Rendering tools **Tools** - Fluid analysis - Finite element analysis - Multibody dynamics **Work** - Discrete event modeling - Continuous event modeling - Mechanical event simulation - Manufacturing process simulation - Integrate **Environment** - Hardware support - Task - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity ## Top TRNSYS Alternatives - [Ansys Fluent](https://www.g2.com/products/ansys-fluent/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (117 reviews) - [MATLAB](https://www.g2.com/products/matlab/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (749 reviews) - [Simulink](https://www.g2.com/products/simulink/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (95 reviews)