How to assign multiple loads and schedules to a single zone?

grasshopper honeybee-legacy
1

For example, in a kitchen there are different equipment and each of them may have its own schedule.

So, may I ask how to assign multiple zone loads and schedules to one zone, especially linking the loads of an equipment to its operation schedule?

Thanks!

1 Like
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any advice?

Thank you in advance!

3

Hi Grasshope, Iā€™m not sure what would be the best approach here. Canā€™t you add them up and apply it all together? I should do a research for best practice to do similar stuff in EnergyPlus.

4

I am not sure, but would it be wrong if you further sub-divide the space (considering its an interior space, there wonā€™t be issues like daylight zones etc.) into multiple ā€˜virtualā€™ zones? and then apply the different specific load and operation schedule to one each of these smaller zones?

5

In general breaking up a zone is not a good approach.

Grasshope, did you find the answer to this question?

6

Hi @Grasshope @mostapha and @chris,
Old thread but relevant for me right now.
Wonder if there is a solution inside HB for this.
I tried defining 2 equipment loads/2 different schedules in tandem using the setEPZoneLoads component. Unfortunately the second one overrides the first one.
In my own code i used to solve this using the ElectricEquipment and Other Equipment blocks in the idf file.

Searched in the unmethours forum with no luck there.

Did you solved this @Grasshope?

Any ideas will be welcome.
Thanks,
-A.

7

OK. I managed to ā€œsolveā€ this issue.
I used the additionalStrings to define a second ElectricEquipment definition for desired zones. The first one works at determined hours and the second one the whole day.
If someone is interested i can share a definition. The actual one is pretty messy right now.
As a wish: I wish it will be possible to define multiple/different loads for the thermal zones.
-A.

3 Likes
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@AbrahamYezioro ,

Glad that additionalStrings_ worked for you and that is the method that I would recommend if you really need them in that format.

Because the simulation runs the same way whether you have two equipment schedules or one equipment schedule that is effectively the sum of two schedules, this situation is an edge case that only affects people who plan to work with the IDF in text editors after it is exported from Honeybee. For this reason, I canā€™t see us implementing support for this in a way that affects all of the non-edge cases for which Honeybee is used. So support for this is likely to be limited to OpenStudio measures and additionalStrings for the time being. Or, if you can think of any other ways of implementing it that do not affect the existing workflows, we can consider that idea.

9

Thanks @chris,
Have to agree with you that other solutions, beside additionalStrings or Measures (which i have to confess, i donā€™t used them so far), will be too much complicated.
I was glad how easy was to solve this with the additionalStrings.
-A.

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Thank you, @AbrahamYezioro.

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Hi Abraham, now I am trying to assign two different ventilation load and ventilation schedule, but as you mention I have the problem of overwriting when I use them in tandem. And you mention that as a solution you used additional strings, can you share example file how you did it?

In my case, I want to define a ventilation load and schedule, also separately define night-time ventilation load and schedule for it.

thank you!

Isil

1 Like
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Hi @AbrahamYezioro,

I know weā€™re over 4 years old on a thread, but Iā€™m curious about this additionalStrings solution. Do you have an example to share?

Iā€™m trying to visualize some of the HPXML stuff on my own house and so I want to be able to set a dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, etc, to the Kitchen. Iā€™ve asked Google this many times and this was the closest thread/solution Iā€™ve found.

Thanks!

13

Hi @bwatanabe ,
Indeed almost 4-5 years.
I need to dig for this again. Donā€™t remember even for which case i was working on.

Right now the workflow i use is averaging/weighting the loads for a 24 hrs schedule.
If relevant i can dig into this also ā€¦ which is more recent and i can find more easily.

-A.

14

@AbrahamYezioro,

The weighted average seems the way to go I guess? Mostapha mentioned to do this on the pollination thread of a similar issue. I have zero idea how to do that though :grimacing:

Any help there would be appreciated.