Strange behavior of cooling, heating energy consumption and Blinds operation

Hi All,

I am trying to model blinds in EnergyPlus, I have setup Daylighting:Controls and have a schedule to operate blinds. However, when I try to simulate my building it gives readings that lighting energy increases when there was blinds (make sense) but it also gives results that heating and cooling energy consumption increase when there was blinds (This does not make sense to me). The blinds should be blocking solar gains and therefore there should be reduction in cooling energy, on the other hand it will also reduce heat loss and hence reduction in heating energy consumption.

I may be missing some small point but unable to figure it out at the moment. Any ideas? The location for weather file is UK and there is only one south facing window.

Thanks

2.5k

Waseem

asked 2015-03-20 06:51:30 -0500

4.4k

__AmirRoth__

updated 2015-07-11 10:41:40 -0500

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Less solar gains can result in increased heating. On the other hand it should reduce cooling. However, due to decreased available daylight your internal gains from artificial lighting are increasing, affecting both heating and cooling. Former should be decreased while latter should be increased. It can be difficult to find a balance between all these phenomena. In addition to this, a building thermal mass also affects cooling and heating requirements.

Ivan Korolija (2015-03-20 06:59:37 -0500) edit

Thanks, I agree. I missed the point before posting this question. I should have plotted lighting gains as well.

Waseem (2015-03-20 07:22:59 -0500) edit

This reminds me of a lengthy and interesting discussion on the Yahoo EnergyPlus group last year. If the lighting load doesn't entirely account for the increase then you might take a look at that thread. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/E...

Jamie Bull (2015-03-20 09:30:30 -0500) edit

Thanks @Jamie Bull

Waseem (2015-03-23 05:34:38 -0500) edit

@Ivan Korolija Please repost your comment as an answer to this question so that is no longer shows as "unanswered". Thanks.

MJWitte (2015-10-15 13:56:12 -0500) edit

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answered 2015-10-15 14:16:49 -0500

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And any solar absorbed by the blinds will become an instant heat gain compare to solar that is absorbed in a wall or floor which results in a delayed load.

MJWitte (2015-10-20 15:48:42 -0500) edit

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Another point to consider is that lighting power also serves as reheat. If the HVAC system is doing latent control and has reheat, it can happen that reductions in lighting lead to increased heating because the reheat coils need to work more.