joekers's profile - activity

I'm trying estimate the surface area of a water heater object. However, I can only obtain the volume of the tank from the water heater object. What would be a good way to estimate the surface area of the tank from a given volume?

I'm developing a measure allows the user to set characteristics of the heaters in the DHW system loop. I'm allowing them to set the fuel type, efficiency of heater, Tank type (instantaneous or tank), r-value of tank, and if it's in a conditioned or unconditioned area. I'm now trying to set the loss coefficient based on these parameters. I will need the surface area of the tank but am unsure of how to obtain this. Any ideas? Also how will the r-value of the tank affect the loss coefficients?

I'm iterating through an array of ModelObjects and want to single out those that are of class WaterHeater? Is there a method that returns the class of the current object? Not sure how to word this question. When I get the class of the object, it is ModelObject. However, I know from looking at the model that it's class WaterHeater. Whenever I use the method supplyComponents, it returns the component as a model object.

Nodes, Pumps, Connector, and Pipes

Thanks,

I want to keep the current heat source object. So after getting all the supply components, do you know how I could locate the heat source object from the supplyComponents?

I'm trying to set the DHW system heat source for various prototype buildings. I am planning to get the current heat source for the DHW loop and setting certain parameters associated with it. However, when changing the parameters for the heat source, I do not want to edit the heat source if it is used for heating in other loops. I only want to edit the heat pump source for the DHW loop. How should I go about obtaining this heat source object and setting its parameters?

I'm trying to add an outer layer of a material to specific surfaces. I currently have a loop that cycles through all the surfaces and singles out those that I want to modify. However, in order to insert a layer, I need the Construction object assigned to that surface. I've notice the Construction parameter associated with a surface returns a Construction base object and not a Construction. How do I obtain the Construction object?

I'm trying to set the solar and visible absorptance for the roof of a building. Right now, I've deduced I need to loop through the surfaces to find those with an outside boundary condition of outdoors and a surface type of RoofCeiling. Once, I single out these surfaces, how do I set their solar and visible absorptance?

Thanks.

Thanks for the comment. I've created a SimpleGlazing construction but can't seem to figure out how to assign it to a subsurface? Do you happen to know the function to do this?

I'm trying to create a measure that allows the user to set the U-Factor and SHGC by direction of the façade (North, South, East, West). I did this with the window/wall ratio by getting the azimuth value from the model's surfaces then calculating the absolute azimuth. I could do this because azimuth was a method for the surface object. However, the U-Factor and SHGC are attributes of a SimpleGlazings object which does not have an azimuth method. How could I set these values by direction for the SimpleGlazings object?

I'm currently writing a measure that allows the user to add an occupancy sensor to a space and was wondering the best way to implement this? Is it best to model it as a reduction in the lighting schedule? Or is there a better way to do this?

I need to reuse a choice array for several arguments. I did this originally by simply creating a single choice array and then using that for each choice argument. Now, in testing, I'm getting an openstudio.Attribute error about the serialization of a vector of attributes with non-unique names. Does this mean I cannot reuse an array for choice arguments? And that I need to create separate choice arrays for each argument even though they have the same choices?

I'm trying to allow the user to select a space type then select from the lighting schedules in that specific space type. So in essence, I'm trying to make one argument value dependent on the other. Is this possible using OpenStudio ruby script? Also, can I allow the user to select more than one argument in a drop down list?