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OpenStudio 2.2 Water Cooled VRF Options?

OS 2.2 no longer has the VRF system options for Condenser Type and Condenser Inlet/Outlet Nodes. These options allowed the setup of a Water Cooled VRF system. Is there an alternate way to model Water Cooled VRF in OpenStudio 2.2?

forest.tanier-gesner's avatar
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forest.tanier-gesner
asked 2017-08-30 13:58:57 -0500
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2 Answers

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you can add a heat exchanger to the condenser water loop as a place holder. Then export the IDF from the OS file. Change the vrf type into water cooled in the idf editor and connect to the heat exchanger nodes. Then delete the heat exchanger from the idf.

BL's avatar
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BL
answered 2017-08-31 13:53:23 -0500
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Edit: as of 3.0.0, this is now supported (OSApp doesn't fully support it yet though). Cf OpenStudio#3613

[1] (main)>
    m = Model.new
    vrf = AirConditionerVariableRefrigerantFlow.new(m)
    p = PlantLoop.new(m)
[2] (main)> p.addDemandBranchForComponent(vrf)
=> true
[3] (main)> vrf.condenserType
=> "WaterCooled"

I just added OSApp support in OpenStudioApplication#185


Original answer:

Similar to this question which never got answered.

You can't use a Water-Cooled VRF in OpenStudio at the moment.

See the source code: AirConditionerVariableRefrigerantFlow.cpp#L1850. It doesn't have the AddToNode method, which is needed in order to be able to connect it to a plantLoop (see here for example)

I don't think there's a ton of (but definitely some) work to be done to be able to add this capability. The AddToNodemethod should be implemented, and then there's testing... But I haven't thought about it for long enough, so many there are complications I am not foreseeing.

As far as how to do that currently, I'd say model an AirCooled VRF, a plant loop, then use an EnergyPlus measure to tweak the object and connect them to the proper plant loop... You might need to use some hacks, such as making sure your plant loop is valid so that it's forward translated properly.

Julien Marrec's avatar
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Julien Marrec
answered 2017-08-31 03:51:01 -0500, updated 2020-06-29 08:06:33 -0500
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Is this still the best methodology for modeling water-cooled VRF in OpenStudio? Or has the source code been updated since this post?

drnnjhnsn's avatar drnnjhnsn (2019-01-16 19:11:49 -0500) edit

If you click the link above (which links to the 'develop' branch), and search for 'addToNode' you get here: https://github.com/NREL/OpenStudio/bl... indicating that openstudio still doesn't support water cooled VRF

Julien Marrec's avatar Julien Marrec (2019-01-17 03:38:54 -0500) edit
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