Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
EnergyPlus probably calculates irradiance on shading surfaces if necessary, e.g. for reflections, but looks like it doesn't report it (I always assumed it did). So I tried the following: I made a dummy zone just for the PV with a roof surface in it, to be able to report irradiance (see attachment).
e+ seems to be okay with this zone without a real zone volume. Now the irradiance on this surface can be reported. If Building:SolarDistribution is set to FullInteriorAndExterior or FullInteriorAndExteriorWithReflections shadowing calculations will take other shading elements into account. Also set the ShadowCalculation:Calculation Method to TmestepFrequency, in order to have higher time resolution shading calculations. By default it is only calculated monthly.
