First time here? Check out the Help page!

Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
Get started with the Help page
Ask Your Question
1

multiple radiators in a single zone

asked 10 years ago

kostas's avatar

Hi there, If I have multiple radiators im a single zone (say 5) can I combine them in one radiator? Also how can I take into account the heat lost by the pipes carrying the hot water around the building? Can I simply reduce the thermal efficiency of the boiler? Thanks in advance, Kostas

Preview: (hide)

2 Answers

Sort by » oldest newest most voted
2

answered 10 years ago

EnergyPlus has objects for pipes without and with heat loss (Pipe:Adiabatic, Pipe:Indoor, Pipe:Outdoor, Pipe:Underground). I don't know if these are supported directly in OpenStudio, but you could swap them in with a measure.

Preview: (hide)
link

Comments

I believe OS only has the Adiabatic Pipe implemented.

Benjamin's avatar Benjamin  ( 10 years ago )
1

answered 10 years ago

Certainly you would want to combine them all together. In terms of delivering the heat to the zone, it doesn't matter if they are a bunch of little radiators, or one big one - the heat output into the zone will be the same.

If its 100% necessary to account for lost heat through the pipes, I personally would do it as an external calculation, to increase the overall heating energy by a certain small percentage. I would not change the efficiency of the boiler. The argument that you could make is that the heat lost through the piping systems is still contributing to heating the building, by radiant heat from the piping. It's not really "lost" heat.

Preview: (hide)
link

Your Answer

Please start posting anonymously - your entry will be published after you log in or create a new account.

Add Answer

Training Workshops

Careers

Question Tools

Stats

Asked: 10 years ago

Seen: 215 times

Last updated: Jan 09 '15