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OpenStudio/EnergyPlus - District Cooling and Heating Loops from Heat Exchangers with Refrigeration System

Hello there,

I am trying to model a two-stage (low temp and high temp) ammonia refrigeration system serving walkin coolers and freezers for a refrigerated warehouse in OpenStudio.

The tricky part is that this refrigeration loop has a number of heat exchanger serving different uses: 1) one near the condenser -> serving the heating hot water that would serve a handful of single zone AHUs; 2) one near the evaporator-> serving the chilled water loop that would serve a handful of single zone AHUs; 3) one heat exchanger serving the the underslab glycol.

My dilemma is how do I make the connection between Chilled Water Plant Loop (for the AHUs) to the Refrigeration Loop. Doesn't seem like there is anywhere on the GUI for OpenStudio. Or is there a possibility that I'm missing?

I'm thinking the only way to do this is to export the IDF and try to do this in EnergyPlus. I found a similar topic posted in using heat exchanger for glycol in EnergyPlus. I suppose that would work (according to the author) for the glycol apart. However, I haven't been able to find similar questions to connecting the wasted heat from refrigeration system to the district loops.

My questions are: 1) Can all these 3 heat exchangers connected to different loops be modeled successfully? 2) Is there any example idf out there that include the heat exchanger piece? Any recommendation is greatly appreciated.

OpenStudio/EnergyPlus - District Cooling and Heating Loops from Heat Exchangers with Refrigeration System

Hello there,

I am trying to model a two-stage (low temp and high temp) ammonia refrigeration system serving walkin coolers and freezers for a refrigerated warehouse in OpenStudio.

The tricky part is that this refrigeration loop has a number of heat exchanger serving different uses: 1) one near the condenser -> serving the heating hot water that would serve a handful of single zone AHUs; 2) one near the evaporator-> serving the chilled water loop that would serve a handful of single zone AHUs; 3) one heat exchanger serving the the underslab glycol.

My dilemma is how do I make the connection between Chilled Water Plant Loop (for the AHUs) to the Refrigeration Loop. Doesn't seem like there is anywhere on the GUI for OpenStudio. Or is there a possibility that I'm missing?

I'm thinking the only way to do this is to export the IDF and try to do this in EnergyPlus. I found a similar topic posted in using heat exchanger for glycol in EnergyPlus. I suppose that would work (according to the author) for the glycol apart. However, I haven't been able to find similar questions to connecting the wasted heat from refrigeration system to the district loops.

My questions are: 1) Can all these 3 heat exchangers connected to different loops be modeled successfully? 2) Is there any example idf out there that include the heat exchanger piece? Any recommendation is greatly appreciated.

OpenStudio/EnergyPlus - District Cooling and Heating Loops from Heat Exchangers with Refrigeration System

Hello there,

I am trying to model a two-stage (low temp and high temp) ammonia refrigeration system serving walkin coolers and freezers for a refrigerated warehouse in OpenStudio.

The tricky part is that this refrigeration loop has a number of heat exchanger serving different uses: 1) one near the condenser -> serving the heating hot water that would serve a handful of single zone AHUs; 2) one near the evaporator-> serving the chilled water loop that would serve a handful of single zone AHUs; 3) one heat exchanger serving the the underslab glycol.

My dilemma is how do I make the connection between Chilled Water Plant Loop (for the AHUs) to the Refrigeration Loop. Doesn't seem like there is anywhere on the GUI for OpenStudio. Or is there a possibility that I'm missing?

I'm thinking the only way to do this is to export the IDF and try to do this in EnergyPlus. I found a similar topic posted in using heat exchanger for glycol in EnergyPlus. I suppose that would work (according to the author) for the glycol apart. However, I haven't been able to find similar questions to connecting the wasted heat from refrigeration system to the district loops.

My questions are: 1) Can all these 3 heat exchangers connected to different loops be modeled successfully? 2) Is there any example idf out there that include the heat exchanger piece? Any recommendation is greatly appreciated.