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Modeling Centralized Cooling for Multiple Buildings in DesignBuilder

asked 2025-04-29 03:13:53 -0500

Anurag_G's avatar

updated 2025-04-29 09:07:09 -0500

Aaron Boranian's avatar

Hello everyone,

I am currently working on a project where I need to model a centralized cooling system that serves four separate buildings. Each building is being modeled individually in DesignBuilder. I have a few questions regarding the best approach to represent this setup accurately:

What exactly does district cooling mean in the context of HVAC systems? How can I effectively model a centralized cooling system that serves multiple buildings, each represented as an individual model in DesignBuilder? Are there any specific considerations or best practices I should be aware of when modeling such a system in DesignBuilder? Any insights, examples, or references to relevant resources would be greatly appreciated

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answered 2025-04-29 12:11:30 -0500

Greg Estep's avatar

Hi Anurag, Make sure not to use separate buildings, just use blocks. If you use separate buildings in design builder you can not have a central HVAC system.

District cooling is an object that simply meets the given load without any performance data. If you are using simple HVAC, then the district heating and cooling objects are used and you will see the energy reported as such in the energyplus summary reports. If you review the results inside design builder in the analysis tab, you then see the fuel usage with the efficiency included.

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Hello Mr. Greg, Thankyou for the explanation. I have some follow up questions on the centralized system in 1 model: 1. How do I isolate the cooling energy use per building or block if the system is centralized? 2. How do I simulate and visualize peak cooling demand for system sizing across all blocks?

Anurag_G's avatar Anurag_G  ( 2025-04-29 22:48:27 -0500 )edit
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Asked: 2025-04-29 03:13:53 -0500

Seen: 125 times

Last updated: Apr 29

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