AirFlowNetwork control

asked 2019-07-05 07:44:17 -0500

Franci19
41 ●1

updated 2019-07-06 09:07:04 -0500

Hello everybody, I'm new here and in the use of EnergyPlus! I have already looked for an answer in existing issues but I couldn't find it. I hope my question is not useless.

I'm implementing the ASHRAE Small Office in EnergyPlus v8.0 adding an AirFlowNetwork for an accurate opening of the windows. I see that in AirFlowNetwork:SimulationControl is possible to select different AirFlowNetwork Controls (MultiZoneWithDistribution, MultiZoneWithoutDistribution, MultiZoneWithDistributionOnlyDuringFanOperation or NoMultiZoneOrDistribution) that allow the calculation of the air exchanges between zones.

The problem is that I would like to implement a new model of window opening leaving the previous setting for infiltration (in the base model the infiltrations are modeled with ZoneInfiltration:DesignFlowRate) in order to evaluate the only window opening influence. I see that MultiZoneWithDistributionOnlyDuringFanOperation is the only control that allows the ZoneInfiltration to run but it performs the MultiZone calculation only during HVAC fan operation.

Does this mean that it considers the influence of window opening only during HVAC fan operation? I would like to consider it during every timestep. Is there another a way?

Thank you everybody!

edit retag flag offensive close merge delete

add a comment

answered 2019-07-05 20:00:24 -0500

Jason DeGraw

2208 ●6 ●10 https://github.com/jasondegraw

If I understand what you're asking correctly, then yes, I think it is the case that the AirflowNetwork window elements won't have an impact when the fans aren't operating. To get what you want you'll have to replace your previous infiltration objects with enough (AirflowNetwork) leakage to get about the infiltration you had before.

There are a lot of reasons the infiltration objects and AirflowNetwork are kept apart, but at a high level those infiltration objects are a load (outside air that needs conditioning) while AirflowNetwork is balancing inflows (which we can consider as loads) and outflows (not loads). That's glossing over a whole bunch of details, but that's the basic idea.

Comments