Are OA Controllers required for all air loops in OpenStudio/EnergyPlus?
I have run the DOAS w/ Chilled Beam measure, but am trying to decouple the OA and chilled beam components. I am doing this because I want OA to be supplied to the zone at a constant temperature (18C) and constant volume (481cfm) 24/7 regardless of cooling load, ambient conditions, occupancy, etc.
Since it's meant to be a 100% OA system, I don't want return air to be recirculated and treated at the coils treating the OA; however, I don't want the airflow through the chilled beam to necessarily be limited to the 481cfm of OA that I am providing (since presumably some of my chilled beams in the zone would be recirculating zone air within the zone). This as led me to try removing my chilled beam from the DOAS loop and attempting to create a closed loop. Running this does not cause the simulation to fail; however, inspection of the results shows that there is no airflow through the chilled beam. This leads me to wonder - does an air loop absolutely require OA? If so (or regardless, I suppose), is there a better way of modeling this system?
It seems if there was a zone equipment object for chilled beams that didn't require an air loop, that would be the cleanest solution (though I've wondered if zone equipment objects simply have air loops created around them on the back-end (?))