As a high-efficiency air-conditioning scheme, the variable refrigerant flow (VRF) air-conditioning system is finding its way in office buildings. However, there is no well-known energy simulation software available so far which can be used for the energy analysis of VRF. Based on the generic dynamic building energy simulation environment, EnergyPlus, a new VRF module is developed and the energy usage of the VRF system is investigated. This paper compares the energy consumption of the VRF system with that of two conventional air-conditioning systems, namely, variable air volume (VAV) system as well as fan-coil plus fresh air (FPFA) system. A generic office building is used to accommodate the different types of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. The work focuses on the energy consumption of the VRF system in the office buildings and helps the designer's evaluation and decision-making on the HVAC systems in the early stages of building design. Simulation results show that the energy-saving potentials of the VRF system are expected to achieve 22.2% and 11.7%, compared with the VAV system and the FPFA system, respectively. Energy-usage breakdown for the end-users in various systems is also presented. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.