Hello,
I am trying to model a large fish tank in OpenStudio. I have several thoughts on how I could go about doing this and wanted to get some feedback from the community. Maybe some of you have better ideas. The goal is to account for every way in which the fish tank, in the real world, absorbs and releases thermal energy into the thermal zone, and account for the heating and cooling needs of that water as well.
1) Use the 'Thermal Storage: Chilled Water: Mixed' object. I could use this object in combination with a chilled water radiant floor or some other method of allowing the water to gain and lose energy to the thermal zone, and then use a chiller to cool the water. This idea would cover the thermal storage aspect of the fish tank, but not how the fish tank is actually open the air.
2) Create a 'Water Use Equipment Definition'. A flow rate can be described, along with sensible and latent heat fraction schedules, and a temperature schedule, but no volume.
3) Use the 'Internal Mass' object. I could define the internal mass using material definitions and constructions. This would indirectly be modelling the water's thermal mass properties, but I can no longer actively cool the water, which is an important part of my energy model.
The fish tank is located inside a thermal zone with no windows, just solid walls. The space is also conditioned (currently I just have a PRAC in that zone).
I look forward to hearing your thoughts or other suggestions.
Thank you.
