tariff reports use incorrect units

asked 2019-12-13 14:56:35 -0600

Jim Dirkes's avatar

updated 2019-12-16 20:54:52 -0600

When we specify tariffs in EnergyPlus, it's common to see the Tariif Report Categories indicate units completly different than are specified in the "CurrencyType" object.

For example, we specified "USD" as the currency type in a recent project and the report indicates categories like "EnergyCharges (£)".

This makes me think something is awry....

What do you think is happening?

edit retag flag offensive close merge delete

Comments

..and it's also the case the the E+ calculation appears incorrect. We have a flat energy tariff (no demand charge, fixed fees, etc.) and a hand calculation shows ~50% error

Jim Dirkes's avatar Jim Dirkes  ( 2019-12-13 15:05:36 -0600 )edit

@Jim Dirkes Could you please add the output of EnergyPlus and your hand calculations to your post? I think I'm getting errors in the tariff calculation as well. Only 2%-5% error though, so not as bad as your 50% errors.

mldichter's avatar mldichter  ( 2019-12-15 13:04:08 -0600 )edit

I think I was using a mixed set of results, some of which were outdated. I re-ran the model and now results are almost identical. My funny units (£) went away, too, so I don't have a complaint any more, but will pay closer attention in case it's a randomly occurring problem

Jim Dirkes's avatar Jim Dirkes  ( 2019-12-15 17:16:59 -0600 )edit

Jim if you come across this problem again, please let me know. I am the author and maintainer of the tariff code in EnergyPlus.

JasonGlazer's avatar JasonGlazer  ( 2019-12-16 07:16:48 -0600 )edit

Will do! I'll also consider that I am often looking at E+ output from within the DesignBuilder interface, so I'll check to see whether they differ inside or outside of DesignBuilder.

Jim Dirkes's avatar Jim Dirkes  ( 2019-12-16 08:00:36 -0600 )edit