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Thermal Zones in Series

OpenStudio allows input of thermal zones in series on the demand side of an air loop. Does this actually work to transfer air between the zones, or is this a flaw in the programming?: image description

Ski90Moo's avatar
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Ski90Moo
asked 2020-03-15 15:45:26 -0500
__AmirRoth__'s avatar
4.4k
__AmirRoth__
updated 2020-03-15 21:13:58 -0500
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This appears to be a flaw in OpenStudio. If you try to assign a second thermal zone "downstream" after a thermal zone in one of the horizontal lines on the demand side, OpenStudio will do one of two things.

First, the correct thing it should do -- give a warning that this isn't allowed and prevent the user from making that mistake (see below).

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Second, the wrong thing it does in your case -- connect the second thermal zone downstream (see below).

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If you eventually try to simulate with an HVAC system like this, you will get a severe error that stops the simulation (see below).

image description

I haven't done enough testing to know when OpenStudio works correctly vs. incorrectly, but this may be worth reporting as a bug/issue on their Github repository. It does not appear that a similar issue already exists.

I believe the only way that you can have two zones in series on the demand side of an air loop is if one of them is a plenum zone. Two conditioned zones cannot be in series with each other for OpenStudio/EnergyPlus.

Aaron Boranian's avatar
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Aaron Boranian
answered 2020-03-16 11:28:30 -0500, updated 2020-03-16 11:30:25 -0500
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I investigated the issue and confirmed it's still present today. Added a bug as NREL/OpenStudio#3917

Julien Marrec's avatar Julien Marrec (2020-03-16 17:33:22 -0500) edit
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