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Incorrect autosizing of PTHP's heating coil

asked 2022-10-17 00:48:15 -0500

Keigo's avatar

updated 2022-10-19 02:00:51 -0500

I have doubts about sizing of PTHP(Packaged Terminal Heat Pump)'s heating coil and supplemental heating coil. I have ran several files which have PTHP, but let me explain with an ExampleFile: HVACTemplate-5ZonePTHP.idf and some revised files for easy validation.

  • Autosized heating coil capacity is exactly the same as the autosized cooling coil capacity, which suggests that the autosizing does not refer to zone heating load and the heating coil capacity is just set to the same as the cooling coils. Also, I tried changing Heating Sizing Factor in Sizing:Parameters, but the results remained the same.
  • Autosized supplemental heating coil capacity is not 0W even though the heating coil capacity is sufficient to meet the heating demand. In the first place, it is unclear how to size the supplemental heating coil capacity. Supplemental heating coil is located after heating coil, not in front of heating coil. Therefore, if the heating coil capacity is autosized, the heating coil capacity should be sufficient to meet the heating demand. Then, PTHP does not need supplemental heating. image description

Below is the coil sizing summary. All the relevant files are here (V9-6-0).

image description

Does anyone know where the detailed sizing description for heating coil and supplemental heating coil is in Engineering Reference? I may be just overlooking it, but I can't find it. I can't find the detailed description in Engineering Reference (but I may be just missing it)

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answered 2025-05-16 03:27:56 -0500

Keigo's avatar

What I observed:

  • Autosized DX cooling coil capacity = Autosized DX heating coil capacity = MAX(Peak cooling load,Peak heating load)
  • Autosized supplemental heating coil capacity is calculated based on the followings.
    1. autosized airflow rate in the DX cooling coil and heating coil sizing
    2. delta T = (Zone Heating Design Supply Air Temperature in Sizing:Zone) - (Maximum Dry-Bulb Temperature for WinterDesignDay in SizingPeriod:DesignDay)

I don't think either is appropriate. The DX cooling coil capacity and the DX heating coil capacity do not have to be identical. They are different in the real world. Moreover, they are separate objects in EnergyPlus. The supplement heating coil capacity is excessively large due to the unreasonable assumption that all the supply air is fresh air. I'll post on github as bugs.

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Keigo's avatar Keigo  ( 2025-06-04 04:32:32 -0500 )edit
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answered 2025-05-19 07:24:01 -0500

EnergyPlus assumes that the heating coil and cooling coil in a PTHP is actually the same coil with a reversing valve - thus it will size the two coils to be the greater of the calculated heating or cooling coil capacities.

The supplemental heating coil will also be sized for the full heating load, because the DX heating coil can be locked out below a certain outdoor air temperature.

It would be nice for EnergyPlus to provide an option to decouple the DX heating and cooling auto-sizing. Even when attached to an airloop, Coil:Heating:DX and Coil:Cooling:DX seemt to have coupled auto-sizing:

image description

(diagram created using EP3)

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Asked: 2022-10-17 00:48:15 -0500

Seen: 197 times

Last updated: May 19