I am drawing a building from a blueprint in Sketchup, and then using openstudio to model the increased insulation etc to make the building more efficiecnt. but should I be drawing the walls from the outer side, the inner side, or the midplane? How is the wall thickkness added?
Wall thickness is not added by EnergyPlus/OS/Sketchup. Walls are 2D in EnergyPlus, and usually it's more important to have accurate zone/space areas than gross building area. So typically modelers will trace the inside of the exterior wall and the midplane of interior walls such that area-dependent gains (lighting/equipment power density, occupant density, etc) are accurate for the space. It is very common to have 5 - 10% discrepancy between gross building areas listed on the plans and floor areas in the model due to wall thicknesses being omitted.
The mass effects of internal walls and furniture can be simulated using InternalMass objects, but there is no geometric accounting for wall thickness.
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