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fan efficiency vs. fan total efficiency issue?

So, in the OpenStudio 1.2.1 Application (with OpenStudio 3.2.1), for an OS:Fan:VariableVolume, I just entered 0.65 for "Fan Total Efficiency", 5.37 for "Pressure Rise" and 0.93 for "Motor Efficiency". Then I did a model_run_sizing_run() and looked at various outputs, which look plausible.

However, I was also curious to see what the fan outputs would be, so I used the following:

  fan_volume_flow_rate = supply_fan.autosizedMaximumFlowRate().get
  fan_eta = supply_fan.fanEfficiency()
  motor_eta = supply_fan.motorEfficiency()
  total_eta = supply_fan.fanTotalEfficiency()
  runner.registerInfo("#{supply_fan_name} has SA = #{fan_volume_flow_rate/0.3048**3*60.0} [cfm], FE = #{fan_eta}, ME = #{motor_eta} ,TE = #{total_eta}.")

Much to my surprise, both fan_eta and total_eta report as 0.65, when I would have expected fan_eta to report as 0.65/0.93 = 0.698925, so that 0.93*0.698925 = 0.65. Am I missing something? Shouldn't total_eta = motor_eta * fan_eta?

mattkoch's avatar
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mattkoch
asked 2021-12-28 16:25:07 -0500
__AmirRoth__'s avatar
4.4k
__AmirRoth__
updated 2022-02-19 08:03:09 -0500
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1 Answer

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The methods fanEfficiency and fanTotalEfficiency are the same. See the Pull Request and associated issue below for background. Impeller efficiency is not an explicit input in EnergyPlus for fans (or pumps), thus OpenStudio does not have a method for it.

https://github.com/NREL/OpenStudio/pu...

So, this code should work...

fan_tot_eff = fan.fanTotalEfficiency
fan_mtr_eff = fan.motorEfficiency
fan_imp_eff = fan_tot_eff / fan_mtr_eff

For pumps, I believe EnergyPlus assumes a constant impeller efficiency of 0.78.

https://bigladdersoftware.com/epx/doc...

MatthewSteen's avatar
10.1k
MatthewSteen
answered 2021-12-28 18:27:18 -0500, updated 2021-12-28 18:50:06 -0500
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Thank you Matthew!

mattkoch's avatar mattkoch (2021-12-30 09:18:58 -0500) edit
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