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EnergyPlus: changing insulation inputs does not change my simulation outputs?

asked 2021-03-01 10:24:46 -0500

devd4199's avatar

updated 2021-03-01 14:07:39 -0500

So I've been changing my insulation values by increasing its thickness as well as lowering its thermal conductivity in the 'Material' section under the Surface Construction Elements list, but no matter what I change the values to, my output numbers are always the same. Am I not accounting for something? Or is it a case where the insulation values aren't actually affecting the results to a noticeable extent? The program runs without any errors, and I have tried changing the values by a magnitude of 100 but to no avail, any help is appreciated!

(The EnergyPlus version I'm using is v9.4.0)

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Do you have non-zero end uses for heating and cooling, and have you confirmed that the construction you are altering is used by one or more surfaces in the building.

David Goldwasser's avatar David Goldwasser  ( 2021-03-01 11:52:23 -0500 )edit

I have non-zero end uses, but I am unsure on how to check for whether the construction being altered is used by one or more surfaces in the building

devd4199's avatar devd4199  ( 2021-03-01 13:46:43 -0500 )edit

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answered 2021-03-02 05:26:47 -0500

Materials are referenced by Constructions, Constructions are referenced by surface objects such as BuildingSurface:Detailed, Wall:Detailed etc. Walk your way up, ensure the Material you tweak is referenced in at least one construction that itself is referenced by at least one surface.

You can also check your eplusout.err, it may have mentions about unused constructions in your file (you may need to add Output:Diagnostics, DisplayUnusedObjects;, see I/O ref here)

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Wow that was the problem, turns out the values I was changing wasn't actually referenced in the Constructions list, I changed a value that was referenced and my outputs are giving different values now, thank you so much @David and @Julien for helping me out! This was really stressing me out

devd4199's avatar devd4199  ( 2021-03-02 11:56:44 -0500 )edit

Cool. Remember to mark the answer as accepted, so the thread is flag as resolved. thanks!

Julien Marrec's avatar Julien Marrec  ( 2021-03-04 01:30:52 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2021-03-01 10:23:41 -0500

Seen: 248 times

Last updated: Mar 04 '21