We have a project which has air cooled heat pumps which provide both hot and cold water to radiant ceiling panels and our AHU coils. I am modelling in EnergyPlus and the only air cooled heat pumps are on the AHU side and not on the plant side, ie they can not supply water to radiant panels (as far as I am aware). The heat pumps on the plant side are all water cooled. We are solving this problem rather inelegantly right now and modelling an air cooled chiller to substitute for the cold water from the heat pumps and a water to water heating heat pump connected to a cooling tower for the hot water supply, in post process we will remove all energy from the cooling tower as well as the pump energy for the cooling tower, I am still considering how we will make the cooling tower act like the outdoor air.
My questions are: 1. Is there a better way to do this in EnergyPlus (ie can we model air to water heat pumps?) 2. How can I make my cooling tower behave like outdoor air, or is there a better condensor object to use that can behave like outdoor air?
As always many thanks for any help I can get, I think we can make it work but it is really messy and I would like something a little more elegant.
Annie
