Limit to Quantity of Chillers in EnergyPlus
Using OpenStudio I occasionally come across large data centers with chiller plants containing >10 chillers and each time I face a limit on the number of chillers I can use. OpenStudio allows all chillers to be created and appropriately translates them to the IDF, but it appears EnergyPlus will only operate a max of 10 chillers. Is this a known Eplus issue or is there an underlying issue somewhere else? Is there a fix for this issue besides combining multiple chillers into single component? Thanks.
Note: this has occurred across multiple versions of OpenStudio and Energy Plus.
I don't think there is a limit for the number of chillers in EnergyPlus. Could you send me a copy of the IDF file that is created when you have more than ten chillers. jglazer at gard dot com.
Jason - I just sent you an IDF file. As I was compiling this test model I think I determined the underlying issue. During the OpenStudio --> EPlus translation process all the chiller objects get translated to the IDF, but the only the first 10 sequentially get added to the PlantEquipmentList control. So maybe this is an OpenStudio translation issue?
You may be right. Have you tried editing the IDF file to add the objects to the PlantEquipmentList manually?
I just tried, but received an error. It does look like EnergyPlus may have an equipment limit on the PlantEquipmentList: BigLadder
In your original question you said that you had tried this with other versions of EnergyPlus. Would it be possible to send me the version from 8.8 or 8.7? I think the answer is different for those earlier versions but I want to double check with a file from an earlier version.