Hi there, If I have multiple radiators im a single zone (say 5) can I combine them in one radiator? Also how can I take into account the heat lost by the pipes carrying the hot water around the building? Can I simply reduce the thermal efficiency of the boiler? Thanks in advance, Kostas
EnergyPlus has objects for pipes without and with heat loss (Pipe:Adiabatic, Pipe:Indoor, Pipe:Outdoor, Pipe:Underground). I don't know if these are supported directly in OpenStudio, but you could swap them in with a measure.
I believe OS only has the Adiabatic Pipe implemented.
Certainly you would want to combine them all together. In terms of delivering the heat to the zone, it doesn't matter if they are a bunch of little radiators, or one big one - the heat output into the zone will be the same.
If its 100% necessary to account for lost heat through the pipes, I personally would do it as an external calculation, to increase the overall heating energy by a certain small percentage. I would not change the efficiency of the boiler. The argument that you could make is that the heat lost through the piping systems is still contributing to heating the building, by radiant heat from the piping. It's not really "lost" heat.
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