Simulate equipment in isolation

asked 2019-10-24 23:07:57 -0500

Keen to simulate different configurations of plant but without modelling the whole building.

Is it possible to simulate a pair of cooling towers that maintain a given CW setpoint and use historical data for entering and leaving temps only across the boundary. The goal is to test different power consumption for CT's running simultaneously at lower speed vs rotating each CT given a run hours limit.

I'm just getting started with OpenStudio and this seems like a simple way to start

Comments

Hi,

I am not very familiar with Openstudio but you could certainly do this to a large extent using EnergyPlus (IDF). You should look into the objects like LoadProfile:Plant to define cooling load without modeling whole building. Additionally, you might need to look into PlantComponent:TemperatureSource object & the EMS programming to define different Cooling tower temperatures. Check this example file in the example folder of E+ installation folder for some more clarity 'PlantLoadProfileCoolingReturnReset.idf'.

Hope this is helpful.

Javed ( 2019-10-28 01:18:33 -0500 )edit

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answered 2019-10-29 17:41:13 -0500

Julien Marrec

29077 ●86 ●74 http://www.effibem.com/

Like @Javed said, LoadProfile:Plant (I/O reference) is what you're looking for. It's a bit weird to setup and manipulate the first time. You'll have to provide two schedules, one for the load itself [W] and another for flow fraction that gets multiplied by the nominal flow rate you enter in it.

It is directly available in the OpenStudio Application. You'll need to set up a single plant loop with a pump, a SPM, your supply equipment (cooling towers) and that load profile object. Aside from that, you need a weather file and a couple of design days unless you hardsize everything. Here's a dummy example:

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