it’s my first time here, so sorry for any mistakes.
I’m trying to study the energy exchange through a spherical envelope from the interior with the external environment, considering the sun loads. The shell of the building is a multiple layer, translucent polymer membrane covering an internal space like a dome.
I’m trying to write the script using ladybug for solar radiation and honeybee for the energy balance. I’m having some difficulties to characterize the envelope material, because it’s not an opaque or a window element.
Somebody have any idea about how I could fix the problem?
Any more suggestions for the development of the script?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help!
In EnergyPlus/Honeybee, anything that transmits light into an enclosed space is a Window/Aperture. So I suggest modeling it as such even though it doesn’t fit neatly into one category or another. Just try to match the SHGC and overall R-value of your translucent polymer assembly with the EnergyPlus window material you use to represent it.
Hi Chris, thanks a lot for your help!
I actually tried to model the element as window, but I’m unable because HB doesn’t allow me to model without gaps between the glazing layers. I also tried as Honeybee_NoMass Opaque Material, but as you said it doesn’t work because it’s not an aperture. I was thinking therefore to model the gap as a polymer layer, do you think it could be a good approach.
Thanks a lot!
Hi @CosimoR, first of all, thanks for posting this topic. Since I´m currently trying to analyze the thermal conditions of a building before and after putting a “membrane facade (translucent)” to see the changes between those conditions, and as you already know it is complicated to set that kind of materials for energy analysis. I was wondering how you managed this situation to get results?.
That screenshot explains a lot. For that case, you can model your yellow geometry as a HB Shade with an ep_trans_sch_ that matches the solar transmittance of your shade. Or you could actually model it as an orphaned HB Aperture if you want (just assigned directly to the Model and not to a Room). In LBT Honeybee 1.5 and above, we automatically translate Apertures without a Parent Room into transparent shade objects for EnergyPlus/OpenStudio and we make sure the solar transmittance matches that of the Aperture’s window construction.
