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Context? eg house vs open-plan office? automated vs manual? For small-scale residential (or similar), I found BEopt's EMS solution to be the most practical, given the uncertainties one needs to deal with (eg occupant perception + forecasting, subsequent actions). You can look up the EMS entries in a BEopt-generated IDF (and adapt to suit your needs/hypotheses). In a nutshell (this may have been revised in recent years):

  • at each timestep, BEopt evaluates house/space thermal conditions
  • BEopt evaluates free cooling potential from balanced ventilation + air infiltration alone (eg off-season)
  • if insufficient, infiltration ACH is overridden (eg 1, 2 or 3 ACH), a proxy for opening windows

Revised ACH are tough to pin down:

  • climate dependent (e.g. hot/humid? windy?)
  • design dependent (single-sided ventilation vs cross-ventilation, number/location of windows)
  • occupant dependent (eg presence/absence, night cooling)

A lot of uncertainties, but at least one can simulate/evaluate a range of likely outcomes. Hope this helps.

Context? eg house vs open-plan office? automated vs manual? For small-scale residential (or similar), I have found BEopt's EMS solution to be the most practical, given the uncertainties one needs to deal with (eg occupant perception + forecasting, subsequent actions). You can look up the EMS entries in a BEopt-generated IDF (and adapt to suit your needs/hypotheses). In a nutshell (this may have been revised in recent years):

  • at each timestep, BEopt evaluates house/space thermal conditions
  • BEopt evaluates free cooling potential from balanced ventilation + air infiltration alone (eg off-season)
  • if insufficient, infiltration ACH is overridden (eg 1, 2 or 3 ACH), a proxy for opening windows

Revised ACH are notoriously tough to pin down:

  • climate dependent (e.g. hot/humid? windy?)
  • microclimate dependent (e.g. wooded area? urban canyon?)
  • design dependent (single-sided ventilation vs cross-ventilation, number/location of windows)
  • static pressure distribution, discharge coefficients of openings (e.g. awning vs casement)
  • occupant dependent (eg presence/absence, night cooling)

A lot of uncertainties, uncertainties (regardless of the calculation method), but at least one can simulate/evaluate a range of likely outcomes. Hope this helps.