Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
Agreed, this will be great to have fully functional in OpenStudio. Regarding use cases:
ZoneMixing: I've used this for quick service restaurants where you have a dedicated outside air supply to various zones, which then flows to a zone where it is exhausted via exhaust fans. I manually ensure that the exhaust flows balance the ZoneMixing flows (otherwise the 1st law of thermodynamics is violated!)
ZoneCrossMixing: I've mainly used in this in E+ for residential modeling for the following scenarios: 1. forced air HVAC system supplies air to one zone, but this zone has no return duct, instead air flows to a different zone then is returned. This is a not an accurate approach because E+ requires return air flow for each zone that has a supply, but at least there is some accounting for the reality that air flows from one zone to the other. 2. Sometimes I have to divide a zone into two zones to satisfy E+'s non-convex zone requirement for the FullInterior solar distribution option, if these really are the same space type I use ZoneCrossMixing to effectively combine these zones into one by fully mixing the air between them. 3. Natural airflow between zones, for example in a passive solar house south facing zones heat up and transfer air with core or north zones.
It would be great to have flexibility with these objects, but also a mechanism to help prevent users from using these objects incorrectly due to the issue with the energy balance being off (violating 1st law)
