On the basis of EnergyPlus's codes, the catalogue and performance parameters from some related companies, a special simulation module for variable refrigerant flow system with a water-cooled condenser (water-cooled VRF) was developed and embedded in the software of EnergyPlus, the building energy simulation program. To evaluate the energy performance of the system and the accuracy of the simulation module, the measurement of the water-cooled VRF is built in Dalian, China. After simulation and comparison, some conclusions can be drawn. The mean of the absolute value of the daily error in the 9 days is 11.3% for cooling capacity while the one for compressor power is 15.7%. At the same time, the accuracy of the power simulation strongly depends on the accuracy of the cooling capacity simulation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.