ModelToIdf and EnergyPlus warnings

asked 2016-05-13 03:57:39 -0600

Yannis
111 ●1 ●6

updated 2016-05-13 11:05:25 -0600

__AmirRoth__

4436 ●5 ●17 http://bleedinggreenna...

I want your help about warnings and how they can be eliminated (Although I understand, they are not all of them critical).

Here 's my model: https://we.tl/5Cmmzhz0UY

ModelToIdf Warnings:

Warning: Both surfaces 'Surface 40', and 'Surface 27 reference the same construction 'Interior Wall' but it is not symmetric, creating a reversed copy.

EnergyPlus Warnings:

Warning : IP: Note -- Some missing fields have been filled with defaults. See the audit output file for details.

In the out.audit file I see this Warning IP: IDF line~1976 Object=LIGHTS, name=189.1-2009 - OFFICE - CORRIDOR - CZ4-8 LIGHTS 1, entered with less than minimum number of fields. * ~~~ * *Attempting fill to minimum. * Add * 1.00000000000000 ! field=>Fraction Replaceable

Warning: ProcessSchedulelnput: ScheduleTypeLimits='CONTROLMODE', Unit Type='CONTROLMODE' is invalid.

Warning: ProcessSchedulelnput: ScheduleTypeLimits=ΊΙΝΕARPOWERDENSITY", Unit Type="LINEARPOWERDENSITY" is invalid.

Warning: ProcessSchedulelnput: ScheduleTypeLimits='VOLUMETRICFLOWRATE", Unit Type=’VOLUMETRICFLOWRATE’ is invalid. Warning: GetHTSurfaceData: Surfaces with interface to Ground found but no 'Ground Temperatures' were input. Found first in surface =SURFACE 1 Defaults, constant throughout the year of (18.0) will be used.

Warning: CheckUsedConstructions: There are 4 nominally unused constructions in input. For explicit details on each unused construction, use Output:Diagnostics,DisplayExtraWarnings;

Warning: Output:Meter: invalid Name='GAS:FACILITY' - not found.

Warning: Output:Meter: invalid Name='DISTRICTCOOLING:FACILITY' - not found.

Warning: Output:Meter: invalid Name='DISTRICTHEATING:FACILITY' - not found.

Comments

I'll entertain you this time because I feel it could still be useful for someone in the future and will give a point of reference as to how you can go point by point to see if it's a big deal.

But in the future please refrain for posting such a big error log. This isn't a troubleshooting website. You should figure it out, research each one if you need to, and if you get really stuck on a single error/warning and cannot find any previous answers here or on other forums, then it's ok to ask a specific question.

Julien Marrec ( 2016-05-13 04:24:00 -0600 )edit

@Julien - I really appreciate your help. I apologize for posting such a big error log. The reason I asked this question is to confirm that I can ignore some of the warnings. As you mentioned the ground temperature warning could matter quite a lot. I 'v read up previous question but I don't understand why doesn't get the values from the weather file.
Thanks for the support!

Yannis ( 2016-05-13 06:53:46 -0600 )edit

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answered 2016-05-13 04:21:32 -0600

Julien Marrec

29706 ●94 ●76 http://www.effibem.com/

All of them can probably be discarded if not for the ground temperature one.

ModelToIdf Warnings:

**Warning**: *Both surfaces 'Surface 40', and 'Surface 27 reference the same construction 'Interior Wall' but it is not symmetric, creating a reversed copy.*

=> Two adjacent surfaces need to have layers in reversed order. Here the copy will be created for you. You can ignore it.

EnergyPlus Warnings:

**Warning** : *IP: Note -- Some missing fields have been filled with defaults. See the audit output file for details.*

In the out.audit file I see this:

***Warning**  IP: IDF line~1976 Object=LIGHTS, name=189.1-2009 - OFFICE - CORRIDOR - CZ4-8 LIGHTS 1, entered with less than minimum number of fields.

* ~~~ * Attempting fill to minimum. * Add * 1.00000000000000 ! field=>Fraction Replaceable

=> The fraction replaceable will be set to 1. here's what it means:

If Daylighting:Controls or Daylighting:DELight:Controls is specified for the zone, this field is used as an on/off flag for dimming controls. If set to 0.0, the lights are not dimmed by the daylighting controls. If set to 1.0, the lights are allowed to be dimmed by the daylighting controls

If you have no daylight dimming controls, you can ignore that. If you do, think about whether they can all be dimmed or not...

**Warning**: *ProcessSchedulelnput: ScheduleTypeLimits='CONTROLMODE', Unit Type='CONTROLMODE' is invalid.* 

**Warning**: *ProcessSchedulelnput: ScheduleTypeLimits=ΊΙΝΕARPOWERDENSITY", Unit Type="LINEARPOWERDENSITY" is invalid.*

**Warning**: *ProcessSchedulelnput: ScheduleTypeLimits='VOLUMETRICFLOWRATE", Unit Type=’VOLUMETRICFLOWRATE’ is invalid.*

=> This just means that your schedule won't be validated, so if you made a mistake E+ won't catch it. Basically, if you say that a schedule can only take values in the range [0:1] and you put 10 as a value, E+ would tell you, and here it won't.

In most cases you don't care about that.

**Warning**: *GetHTSurfaceData: Surfaces with interface to Ground found but no 'Ground Temperatures' were input.

Found first in surface =SURFACE 1 Defaults, constant throughout the year of (18.0) will be used.*

=> This is one that could matter quite a lot, especially if you have a low-rise building (for high rise buildings, the effect gets diluted a lot more). I suggest you read up on the Slab and Ground preprocessors in the Input/output reference guide. There are also previous questions on UnmetHours.

**Warning**: *CheckUsedConstructions: There are 4 nominally unused constructions in input.

For explicit details on each unused construction, use Output:Diagnostics,DisplayExtraWarnings;*

You can probably ignore that, E+ is just telling you that you defined stuff that you didn't assign, and maybe that's ok, maybe you forgot to assign them. It's very common when using OpenStudio to have more constructions, from templates, than needed.

I think E+ might be (or might have in the past?) calculating the conduction transfer function for these even if you don't use them, which would lead to (slightly) increased simulation time.

**Warning**: *Output:Meter: invalid Name='GAS:FACILITY' - not found.*

**Warning**: *Output:Meter: invalid Name='DISTRICTCOOLING:FACILITY' - not ...

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Comments

Is there a way to remove unwanted Output:Meter and Output:Table:Monthly objects or suppress them from flagging errors? I was hoping to delete the objects not applicable to my model's load cases, but it seems these are not objects that can be accessed through an EnergyPlus measure (when running it through the CLI) --are they indeed objects added by OpenStudio after EnergyPlus measures are run? If so, are there any ways to stop these from flagging a warning in the eplusout.err file? Many thanks.