I have a question regarding buildings with an interior courtyard with the Honeybee software.
My objective is to know the effect of an interior courtyard on the thermal comfort inside a room with windows on the interior courtyard compared to a room of the same size with windows on an exterior facade (see model below).
When I simulate the model, the results obtained for these two classes are strangely very (too) similar. It seems that the software does not take into account the presence of the interior courtyard.
For example, the heating loads are the same for both classrooms while logically, the heating gains should be higher for the classroom facing the inner courtyard because of the shade generated by the building and the fact that the other classroom is facing south.
Can someone help me or tell me if this is an error on my part or if the software cannot take into account the shape of the building with the interior courtyard?
Can’t tell for sure, but i will think that the internal loads for classrooms are high (number of people being the main one, but also lighting). That can be one explanation that you should check on your side.
-A.
Yes, I had considered internal charges. However, since the internal loads are the same for both classrooms, it still seems strange to me that the position of the classrooms in a courtyard building has no more effect than that.
My comment was intended to say that the internal loads can be so high that the heating consumption can be low, so the position of the classroom will not affect significantly.
Can be useful for you to run a load balance to see what is going on.
Again, this is an speculation on my part.
-A.
The answer for this type of question is usually to run an Annual Load Balance. That will tell you if the solar and envelope loads are significant enough for this space to make any difference on the heating and cooling. For example, the solar gain has a practically insignificant effect on the thermal load balance of this hospital patient room that I produced this graphic:
