Hi Everyone,
I'm wondering what techniques other modelers have for adding thermal bridges in OpenStudio. To be clear, I'm curious on how modelers put the values into OpenStudio once the bridges are already calculated.
I'm still learning this software and as far as I can tell, I have 3 options:
1) Use a multiplier on wall surfaces of a certain construction. Is this possible in OpenStudio? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
2) Make new surfaces that represent the thermal bridge areas and make a custom material with conductivities and widths that give me the U-value I want to represent the bridge. I liked this approach because although it's more work, it is a good visual representation. However, it requires much more drawing in Sketchup and leads to the infinite amounts of drawing errors that come with using the Sketchup Plugin.
3) Calculate an effective u-value for a surface with bridges, then apply that to the construction used in the surface. I was thinking of making a custom material with a negative conductivity that would represent all the losses from bridges, but it seems negative conductivities are not allowed in OpenStudio. The only way I can think of is to make new assemblies with a single material that gives the U-value I want. That would be a drag, because I like having the assembly made up of BCL materials so the model is transparent and easy to follow.
Look forward to hearing any tips the community is willing to share.
