Multiple Meters for a Single Building

I have a OpenStudio model with a office tower and a multifamily tower. I am trying to create a custom meter so that I can have different utility rates for each part of the building (commercial for the office, residential for the multifamily).

I know that I can create a Meter:Custom object and apply a UtilityCost:Tariff to that meter. Looking in the eplusout.mdd file I have lighting electricity and internal load electricity for each zone, but all of the HVAC energy use is for the entire building. The residential and office towers have different HVAC systems, but I am not sure how to meter each system separately. Is this possible to do?

The only approach I can think of is to use output variables to get the total energy use from each HVAC system and then manually apply the utility rate. For the residential flat rate this would not be a issue, but this would be very difficult for the demand charges for the commercial rate.

Does anyone have a good solution for multiple meters in one model?

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TaylorRoberts

asked 2015-01-21 16:23:41 -0500

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__AmirRoth__

updated 2015-07-11 16:57:56 -0500

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Meter:Custom combines specific output:variables and meters into a new meter. Consult the mtd output file to find all of the metered output variables coming from the HVAC equipment (look towards the bottom of the mtd output file for the Electricity:HVAC and Electricity:Plant (and Gas . . .) meters and see what's connected to them. For example, from the 5ZoneAirCooled EnergyPlus example file:

For Meter=Electricity:Plant [J], ResourceType=Electricity, Group=Plant, contents are:
  CENTRAL BOILER:Boiler Ancillary Electric Energy
  CENTRAL CHILLER:Chiller Electric Energy
  HW CIRC PUMP:Pump Electric Energy
  CW CIRC PUMP:Pump Electric Energy

Then specify the desired output:variables from these lists on the desired custom meters. And then use the custom meters in the utility rate tariffs.

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MJWitte

answered 2015-01-21 20:39:35 -0500, updated 2015-01-21 21:04:55 -0500

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I don't have experience with this specific problem, but it seems like an Energy Management System routine could meter separate HVAC systems and apply demand charges. Perhaps take a look at Example 9: Demand Management of the EMS Application Guide. It doesn't do exactly what you want, but could provide inspiration.

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ericringold

answered 2015-01-21 19:34:19 -0500, updated 2015-01-21 19:34:47 -0500

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@TaylorRoberts I think this is possible but I have not done this myself. This does seem like a good candidate for Big Ladder's free EnergyPlus support service :-)

http://bigladdersoftware.com/projects...source=unmethours&utmmedium=qa&utm_campaign=support-2014-12