Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
EnergyPlus has a neat trick of being able to report out a ton of variables which can be viewed in the ESO file viewer. Usually if you are getting unmet load hours there is something wrong with your system as the previous answerers have pointed out. The easiest way to check your systems and what they are doing is to report out your node flow rates and node temperatures. For one hour of the day you can plot the temperatures and flow through your AHU. you can see the temperature and flow return from the zones, the outdoor air temperature and return, then the fan, the coils and finally what is being delivered to each space, it is here you can also see which spaces are reheating and which aren't (assuming you have a reheat system). You can do the same for your plant loops, it is clear when you do this, whether your flow is too high or non existent, whether your coils are working or not, whether they are meeting setpoint etc.., whether your outdoor air is coming in when it should be and stopping when it should be. Whether your fan is running constantly and so on.
By doing it this way you aren't relying on a check list and luck you are analysing what your system is actually doing and whether it is doing it correctly. More importantly you can point out to your clients any potential issues that they might have designed into the system that need to be discussed.
