How to Troubleshoot Models - NatLabRockies/alfalfa GitHub Wiki

Common Issues With EnergyPlus Models

Uploaded model never shows up

This can occur when the uploaded model is malformed, this causes the job to exit before a site entry is created (This is a known issue and will be fixed in upcoming releases).

Site Errors on Start

This can be a result of several possible issues. Below are some common ones.

Missing Python Dependencies

If you see an error which looks similar to this you need to add you python requirements to your model. Instruction for doing so can be found here.

   ** Severe  ** Failed to import module "simple_plugin"
   **   ~~~   ** Python error description follows: 
   **   ~~~   ** ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'sklearn'")

Site Fails to Start

If you see an error which looks similar to this it means that most likely energyplus crashed while trying to initialize the external interface and there are several troubleshooting steps you can take:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/alfalfa/alfalfa_worker/lib/job.py", line 105, in start
    self.exec()
  File "/alfalfa/alfalfa_worker/jobs/step_run_base.py", line 107, in exec
    self.advance_to_start_time()
  File "/alfalfa/alfalfa_worker/jobs/openstudio/step_run.py", line 100, in advance_to_start_time
    self.update_outputs_from_ep()
  File "/alfalfa/alfalfa_worker/jobs/openstudio/step_run.py", line 120, in update_outputs_from_ep
    packet = self.ep.read()
  File "/home/alfalfa/.cache/pypoetry/virtualenvs/alfalfa-mfknN3Ol-py3.8/lib/python3.8/site-packages/mlep/mlep_process.py", line 212, in read
    decoded = piece.decode('utf-8')
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xe0 in position 0: invalid continuation byte

Run your workflow locally to confirm is executes properly
Check your eplusout.err file for warnings associated with sensors, output variables, and output meters. While a misidentified variable may only throw a warning locally, if the external interface tries to read to write to that variable it will cause EnergyPlus to crash.