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Negative Interzone Floor Zone Component Load Summary Results

asked 2025-10-13 22:58:43 -0500

David Tee's avatar

updated 2025-10-14 08:38:44 -0500

Hello everyone. I'm trying to simulate the cooling load of a 2 level building. However, I have some issue understanding the results of the upper floor rooms' interzone floor, which have a quite high negative value. This causes the room to have lower cooling load which I'm afraid is not accurate. Here is the results of the zone component load summary: image description image description

A little context of the building: image description

The results of the zone component load summary above is the room above (red rectangle). All the rooms of the 2nd floor shows a similar results with the negative value of interzone floor. The room right below it is also air conditioned with a 24 degree setpoint temperature, the same with the room above. The fenestrations are all facing South, since the location is in Indonesia, the peak in November makes sense as the sun's position is also on the South at that point in time.

I see that the negative result is sensible - delayed, which means that it has something to do with the thermal mass. I believe the material of the floor (concrete slab) will store the heat that it received from the sun's radation during the peak time. is that the reason why the value of the interzone floor is negative? I really appreaciate the help. thank you very much.

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@David Tee it looks like your images didn't attach correctly -- can you please edit your post to try and attach them again? Or upload them to a file sharing service like Dropbox and share the URL here?

Aaron Boranian's avatar Aaron Boranian  ( 2025-10-14 08:39:27 -0500 )edit

Hi Aaron! Sorry about that. I have attatched all the images, osm, and IDF file in this Google Drive link. Thank you :)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...

David Tee's avatar David Tee  ( 2025-10-14 20:45:42 -0500 )edit

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answered 2025-10-15 08:25:38 -0500

Greg Estep's avatar

Hi David, I think you have correctly analyzed the issue. Per the E+ output details and examples reference for the Component loads summary, "The Sensible-Delayed column of the summary is only an estimate based on a procedure described in the Engineering Reference documentation."

Further, "The difference between the peak design sensible load and the estimated instant + delayed sensible load (as shown in the Peak Conditions subtable) is an indication of how consistent the overall total estimate may be to the computed total peak loads for the zone."

If you are trying to find zone heating and cooling design loads for equipment sizing, I recommend using a different method. Use the Ideal loads method:

  • add ZoneHVAC:IdealLoadsAirSystem to each zone
  • Leave Maximum Heating/Cooling Capacity and Mass Flow as Autosize
  • Run a sizing run
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Hi Greg, thank you very much for replying! I will try ZoneHVAC:IdealLoadsAirSystem after this.

Greg, I still have one question regarding the negative value of the interzone floor. I tried simulating a condition where the AC of the room right below it is set to off. However I still get a negative value, from -775W to -424W. I'm wondering whether this negative value mean:

a) How much heat the floor stores the heat that it gets from the direct sun exposure, or b) How much heat the floor penetrates the heat from the room itself to the room right below it.

Thanks very much friend.

David Tee's avatar David Tee  ( 2025-10-16 04:49:09 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2025-10-13 22:58:43 -0500

Seen: 191 times

Last updated: Oct 15