Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
After some further investigation, I have partially answered some of my questions.
First, I've discovered that I can manually force which thermal-zones are grouped into "solar-enclosures" by defining Material:InfraredTransparent surfaces as the inter-zone boundaries wherever I want to separate "solar-enclosures". I can thereby avoid the error I encountered, but the downside is that Material:InfraredTransparent surfaces are not transparent to solar radiation. Regardless, the work-around does not explain why the error would occur.
Second, by reviewing the outputs Surface Inside Face Solar Radiation Heat Gain Rate and Surface Inside Face Beam Solar Radiation Heat Gain Rate it appears that Construction:AirBoundary surfaces convert beam solar radiation to diffuse solar radiation. Surfaces in zones beyond a Construction:AirBoundary surface receive "Solar Heat Gain" but receive zero "Beam Solar Radiation". This would explain how the feature deals with non-convex solar enclosures - it seems that when using "FullInteriorAndExterior" solar distribution, shadowing calculations are only performed for the thermal-zone with windows, not for the "solar-enclosure group" as a whole.
However, I am confused by this behavior because it is not consistent with documentation for Construction:AirBoundary Solar and Daylighting Method = GroupedZones (EP v9.2.0 IOM - 9/27/2019). Interestingly, the behavior observed is exactly what I would expect for calculation of solar distribution through interior windows, but when I choose Solar and Daylighting Method = InteriorWindow I receive the following warning:
** Warning ** CreateAirBoundaryConstructions:Construction:AirBoundary Solar and Daylighting Method=InteriorWindow is not functional.
** ~~~ ** Using GroupedZones method instead for Construction:AirBoundary = AIR BOUNDARY.
Can anyone provide further clarification about what to expect from this new (very important) feature?
