Phantom Thermal Zones Reappear
Hello, I built a fairly simple single storey home in the OpenStudio application. I followed a YouTube playlist and managed to get the Site Data, Space Types, Geometry (including windows & doors) and Thermal Zones all sorted.
I then imported this into SketchUp (2022) because 3 of the rooms in this home have 'raked' ceilings, whereas the rest of the home has standard ceilings. This was fairly simple to do, and while I was at it I ensured the interior walls & doors understood their association (i.e. I made them go 'green'). When I then saved the model, it ended up majorly duplicating the thermal zones inside OpenStudio & the SketchUp model.
I have tried everything I can think of. I've deleted all of the thermal zones & started again, but if I do this inside of SketchUp, the 'phantom' thermal zones show up in OpenStudio. If I delete them inside OpenStudio, it breaks the raked ceilings (it reverts them to standard ceilings & then throws up a bunch of errors because a bunch of surfaces/faces no longer exist). I have searched for the 'phantom' thermal zones in the '.osm' file instead, but they don't show up. Nothing I do stops these unused zones from appearing within OpenStudio.
My end goal here is to understand what ducted heat pump(s) I need to buy for the new home. I'm worried about over-specifying, especially since my lounge will have underfloor heating. I'm happy to just get the specification within the ballpark, that's why I'm [attempting] to use OpenStudio & EnergyPlus. It's gotta be better than the sub-par help I've had from some local 'experts' who have quoted for a ridiculously wide range of specification (8 kW system up to a 26 kW system.... HOW!?).
Comments
@PLarry what makes you think that the thermal zones are duplicated and that you have "phantom" thermal zones? From the image you uploaded, the 3-D geometry in OpenStudio looks fine, at first glance.
They appear on the list of Thermal Zones in the Geometry tab where I can 'click' on spaces to allocate zones. I can delete them from there, but then OpenStudio wants me to click a button that updates the model & it reverts my raked ceilings to standard ceilings & breaks the geometry. I think this is happening because in the table I have stated the ceilings are '2.4 m' but the 3D model (done with sketchup) has raked ceilings.
The key errors remaining now are:
@PLarry thanks for clarifying. If possible, can you upload your model to Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. and then share a URL for others to download? That would help others provide better solutions.
Without more information, I would suggest trying to delete these "phantom zones" from the model using the Thermal Zones tab of the OpenStudio Application instead of the Geometry tab.