How to add a surface with shade to a zone?

grasshopper honeybee-legacy
1

Hi,

I am working on a sunspace zone with south windows and skylights.
sunSpace_v12_shadeTest.gh (594.0 KB)

As I want to model different shading strategies for these two types of openings, first, I only connected the surface with skylights to EPWindowShades and defined a shade for it. But, I do not know how I can put this Honeybee surface back into my zone.

I know the workflow is easy in case of fixed shades, as they can be sent to the EnergyPlus simulator as HBContext. But my problem concerns operable shadings such as shades and blinds with their control and schedule objects. Is it possible at all to take a surface from a zone, add some EnergyPlus properties to it and put it back to the zone?

Best,
Farhang

1 Like
2

Hi @farhang.tahmasebi, The blinds will be added to the object itself and will be included in simulation. Here are two examples: 1, 2.

3

Thanks @mostapha. Of course the workflow you are referring to works.

But in my model I have already made the zone with Mass2Zone. So, I was hoping there would be a workflow to pick a specific surface from a zone, add a shade to it, and put it back to the zone that is already defined.

This possibility is there for making windows. Because one can add sub-surfaces via addHBGlz to an existing zone (what I have done in the model sunSpace_v12_shadeTest.gh (594.0 KB)).

Don’t worry about answering, if you are busy @mostapha. It may be something to think about in future. I guess the possibility of surface-level modifications after making the zones would make Honeybee workflows even more flexible.

Best,
Farhang

4

Hi @farhang.tahmasebi. That is possible. You can use decompose zone to get the surfaces, find the surfaces that you need to add the blinds to, add the blinds and put them back together to create a new zone using create zone from surface component. Hopefully someone can share a sample file with you. For the next couple of days I won’t be able to help much. Cheers.

5

@farhang.tahmasebi,
See attached for what @mostapha suggested.
Is pretty much self-explanatory, but if you have questions postthem here.
-A.
sunSpace_v12_shadeTest_AY.gh (659.8 KB)

3 Likes
6

Thanks @mostapha. I was only trying decomposeByType, which did not make much sense for this problem, as it removes EnergyPlus properties.
Thanks @AbrahamYezioro for drawing my attention to decomposeHoneybeeZone and taking time to re-implement the model.