Issue with SurfaceControl:MovableInsulation for wall applications
I've been working on dynamic insulation systems and successfully used the EMS surface construction actuator. Now, I'm looking to explore the surface control movable insulation object in EnergyPlus. However, I'm encountering some discrepancies in my results that I can't quite understand.
I reviewed the documentation and examined the two example files that use interior and exterior movable insulation to understand how it’s modeled. Below is a summary of the tests I've conducted using the example file “MovableExtInsulationSimple.idf”of version 9.6, focusing on one wall. I expected the energy use to be similar for all matching colors since the same construction materials were applied.
Additionally, I ran the tests for all walls to assess the overall impact.
Here is what I noticed:
The results are identical when modeling the movable insulation as exterior, interior, or a combination of both with an always OFF schedule compared to modeling the insulation layer as part of the construction class list, which is great!
The discrepancy in the results is relatively small when comparing outside movable insulation with an always ON schedule to modeling the exterior insulation layer as part of the construction class list.
The results are significantly different when using inside movable insulation. Why is this not similar to modeling the interior insulation as part of the construction class list??
I am aware that there was some logic refactoring for the movable insulation module in version 9.6, but could this still be a bug? Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
