I am working on a university research project on the hygrothermal and energy performance of bio-based insulation materials in building envelopes. I am still learning EnergyPlus, and I want to use it to compare the energy consumption of assemblies using bio-based versus conventional insulation materials.
I have an existing EnergyPlus model that uses the default CTF algorithm, and I want to switch it to HAMT to enable moisture transport modelling alongside the energy comparison.
What I have tried: I read the EnergyPlus Engineering Reference section on HAMT and the relevant IDD entries (HeatBalanceAlgorithm, MaterialProperty, HeatAndMoistureTransfer). I understand that HAMT requires additional material properties (moisture diffusivity, liquid transport coefficients, sorption isotherm) that CTF does not use.
My question: Is converting an existing CTF model to HAMT as straightforward as changing the HeatBalanceAlgorithm object and adding the hygric material properties ? Or are there additional model-level changes to expect?
Any experience or pitfalls to flag would be very helpful.
