IdealAirLoads for ThermalZone with OpenStudio SDK

I'm trying to use the ZoneHVAC:IdealLoadsAirSystem system in the OpenStudio SDK through use of openstudio::model::ThermalZone::setUseIdealAirLoads(True). I want to be able to access the sizing information from the EnergyPlus simulation and am not clear on how this may be accessed within OpenStudio.

Is the sizing information (e.g. Design Cooling Air Flow Rate) that would normally be found in the HVAC Sizing Summary report accessible through the OpenStudio objects? It is not clear to me whether this information is contained in the SQL file and is linked to the model with openstudio::model::setSqlFile(sqlFile). Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Also, I wanted to note that I am using the python bindings to the SDK in version 1.5.4.

OpenStudio Model API doesn't provide methods to access this information directly but you can use the SqlFile class outside of Model to do what you need to do. In Ruby it would look something like this.

sql = OpenStudio::SqlFile.new 'path/to/energyplusrun/eplusout.sql'
sql.execAndReturnFirstDouble("select Value from TabularDataWithStrings WHERE ReportName='HVACSizingSummary' and ReportForString='Entire Facility' and TableName='Zone Cooling' and ColumnName='Calculated Design Air Flow' and RowName='STORY 1 CORE THERMAL ZONE';").get

This is assuming your tabular html data looks something like the screenshot. You may adjust the names to get other data in a similar way.

image description

Kyle Benne

answered 2015-01-14 10:29:40 -0500

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Thanks Kyle. This works perfectly! I would be excited to see this report more fully integrated into the SDK in the future. Sizing information is crucial to design professionals during life cycle cost analysis, so we are constantly using it to make energy and financial decisions. I'm happy I have a way to access the information easily, though.