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District heating in EnergyPlus

Hi there! I am facing the problem on how to model a district heating by using e+. Could I ask you which type of components do I have to use in Eplus launch? A simple case it would be ok- Thanks agian for the help!! Christian

chrisis's avatar
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chrisis
asked 2020-03-25 10:42:30 -0500
Aaron Boranian's avatar
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Aaron Boranian
updated 2020-03-25 17:26:59 -0500
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I started to take a look at WindACAirtoAir.idf . Sometimes I get lost because there are several components. By the way, I cannot understand the component named Sizing zone. In such component are specified the supply air temperature for cooling 12 and heating 50 when the temperature setpoints in the schedule compact are different for both heating and cooling. Moreover, do you know a convenient way to make a skatch of the building envelope in some free cad program in order to import the drawing into WindACAirtoAir.idf file?

chrisis's avatar chrisis (2020-03-29 16:20:39 -0500) edit

@chrisis this is really a different question and should be created as a new post. However, there is already a post that discusses the Sizing:Zone object, as well as another post that discusses tools to visualize and edit the geometry of EnergyPlus files. Please search existing posts on Unmet Hours to try and answer your question before adding a new post.

Aaron Boranian's avatar Aaron Boranian (2020-03-30 08:53:03 -0500) edit

Thanks again Aaron and sorry for the mess

chrisis's avatar chrisis (2020-03-30 12:46:29 -0500) edit
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1 Answer

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Hi,

you have to connect your hot water loop to the District Heating object as hot water generator (Primary Supply Side), than to as many Fluid-to-fluid heat exchangers as you need on Primary Demand Side to model the heat exchanger substation at building level.

These Fluid-to-fluid heat exchangers will be on the Secondary Supply Side, than finally the you have to put the teminal units yuo need (radiators, fan coil units, AHU coils,....) to the Secondary Demand Side.

Obviously every loop (the Primary and the Nth Secondary) need to have their own pumps in order to move hot water flows and be properly controlled.

Ag

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Ag
answered 2020-03-26 03:54:39 -0500, updated 2020-03-26 05:51:43 -0500
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Hi, thanks again for your answer. I will try in the next days and then I will let you know. Best regards, Christian

chrisis's avatar chrisis (2020-03-26 05:48:06 -0500) edit

It is also possible to put the terminal units, radiators, coils, etc. on the primary demand side. You don't necessarily have to use water-to-water heat exchangers to "bridge" heat transfer from district heating/cooling to these types of HVAC components. Check out the EnergyPlus example file WindACAirtoAir.idf to see an example of one Hot Water Loop with district heating on the supply side and hot water baseboards on the demand side.

Aaron Boranian's avatar Aaron Boranian (2020-03-26 08:54:55 -0500) edit

Yes, for sure you're right. I was supposing for a district heating serving multiple buildings, that is a District Heating as in the topic, and not just a single building served by a District Heating

Ag's avatar Ag (2020-03-26 11:00:38 -0500) edit
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