Adding an actuator to EnergyPlus
I am doing CO2-based demand control ventilation, i need to add an actuator for EMS programming: Zone_CO2_Concentration.
Details of my idea: assume the sensor readings of CO2 sensors have faults in real buildings, and the readings have some deviations. The demand control ventilation rely on the accuracy of sensor readings of CO2 concentration. I try to implement such a problem in EnergyPlus. In EMS there is a sensor: zone CO2 concentration, and during each timestep i try to add some deviations to the sensor results in EMS, send it back to the EnergyPlus by actuator of EMS for next timestep calculation. Such approach will make different responses to DCV and thus different building energy consumption. I will need to conduct large scale simulations for about 10000 cases, and study the sensitivity of sensor readings to the building energy consumption.
current actuator list does not have such actuator for EMS. how to implement this?
Why are you talking about actuator? You're not referring to the EMS are you?
Aren't you referring instead to a Controller, here a ZoneControl:ContaminantController?
thanks. i am talking about the EMS.
Do you mean an EMS sensor or are you trying to overwrite the CO2 concentration output from the
ZoneAirContaminantBalance?yes. overwrite the zone CO2 concentration.
I'm not sure you can add an EMS actuator (which requires change to source code) since CO2 is a result of mixing OA with zone/return air. Overwriting that value would mean the amount of OA would need to change to conserve the mass balance of CO2.
thanks @rraustad. I am doing the sensitivity analysis for zone CO2 sensor accuracy. I need to manipulate the zone CO2 concentration.
Manipulation of zone CO2 concentration would be in the form of changing zone occupancy and/or changing the outdoor air controller or mechanical ventilation inputs. Other than that I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish.
The 'sensor' IS the value, so even if there was a way to overwrite the concentration you'd effectively just be overwriting the sensor value. There's no reason (that I'm aware of) the sensor value wouldn't be the value that you're setting (ie perfect accuracy).
@Adam Hilton. Thanks. I am trying to do the sensitivity analysis of sensor accuracy through EnergyPlus. In such case, i need to manipulate the values of sensor readings with some errors for the zone CO2 concentration. So i need to create an actuator in EMS for zone CO2 concentration.