I am constructing a simulation to quantify the energy savings from using dynamic insulation materials. I am having trouble implementing this and I'm looking for guidance.
I'm trying to implement this using EMS to switch the outdoor facing walls between two constructions, one with a low conductivity and one with a high conductivity. I'm doing this following the EMSThermochromicWindow example that's downloaded with EnergyPlus.
The model I'm using is the single family residential prototype building model (https://www.energycodes.gov/prototype-building-models#Residential). The two constructions are both based on the Exterior Wall construction that comes with the residential prototype building model. The low conductivity construction is exactly the same as the exterior wall construction and the only difference of the high conductivity construction is that the conductivity of the wall_consol_layer is 1 W/(m·K) instead of 0.05W/(m·K).
Upon completing the EMS implementation and running the simulation, I observed there was no change in the building's heating or cooling energy consumption compared to the simulation without EMS. In the error file, I got the following warning:
* Warning ** InitEMSControlledConstructions: EMS Construction State Actuator may be unrealistic, incompatible CTF terms are being used.
* ~~~ * Construction named = EXTERIOR WALL CONDUCTING has number of CTF terms = 7
* ~~~ * While construction named = EXTERIOR WALL has number of CTF terms = 10
* ~~~ * The actuator is allowed but the transient heat transfer modeling may not be valid for surface name = WALL_LDB_1.UNIT1, and the simulation continues*
I saw that there was another post with a similar error (https://unmethours.com/question/16819/errors-using-ems-on-e-to-simulate-dynamic-insulation/). I saw that they used CondFD while I'm using CTF. I tried following the recommendations in the post for ways to make the CTF terms for the two constructions equal by changing the timestep and breaking the high conductivity construction into a larger number of thinner layers, but neither closed the gap between the CTF terms of the two constructions.
Do you have any ideas on what I can try to make this work? Thank you, Philip
