Non-planar facade energy simulation

Hello everyone,
I am working on daylight and energy simulation of non-planar façade which is a combination of PV panel and glass. I have to compare the energy consumption (heating, cooling, lighting) and energy generation (electricity by the PV panel) of different configurations of non-planar façade. I have started with a simplest model.
Attached you can find the picture of the simple model of non-planar façade. I started with a box and deconstructed façade surface and made it non-planar. Then two closed zones are created and I then use HB-SolveAdjc, but the Energy Simulation gives a Fatal Error.

  1. The simulation has not run correctly because of this severe error:
    ** Severe ** GetSurfaceData: Zone has no surfaces, Zone=ZONE1
  2. The simulation has not run correctly because of this severe error:
    ** Severe ** GetSurfaceData: Zone has no surfaces, Zone=ZONE2
  3. The simulation has failed because of this fatal error:
    ** Fatal ** GetSurfaceData: Errors discovered, program terminates.
    Can someone help me with it?

Thanks to everybody for your help.

@Nikou Could you upload your Rhino model and Grasshooper definition?

@minggangyin thanks for your reply. I try to upload my file but It is not possible. I get the message " New users can not upload attachments". Anyone can help?!

@Nikou You can share the link of you model using GoogleDrive or Dropbox.

@minggangyin please check if you can open it.thanks. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v6HG6U_MGXXjA35Ry1DMtaAJjgERqwpt/view?usp=sharing

@Nikou The googledrive link is not able to download. So I did a demo according to your demand.
Here is the screenshot of openstudio model and grasshooper definition.


non-planar façade.gh (539.5 KB)

Hi @minggangyin
Thank you for your answer. I want to model a room like below pictures. I try to complete scripts in grasshopper. I made a rectangular shape and a triangular shape next to each other but I don’t know how I can remove the surface between these two parts. I also have problem with create zone. any help will be highly appreciated.
nikouPicture1 Picture2
non-planarfacade.gh (462.4 KB)

Hi @Nikou
Your grasshooper definition is just the geometry. There is only one Honeybee compotent.


I suggest you upload the full definition for further discussion.

There are two method to do it。

  1. Set the partition as air-wall construction.
  2. Combine two zone to a zone.

@minggangyin: the airwall approach will create two zones with a opaque wall in between with a very low thermal resistivity (a default OPenstudio construction), right?
This way you cannot get an idea of how directly transmitted solar gains will get distributed across the surfaces in the zone behind the facade (solar gains will Reach the zone indirectly through the air-wall).

I believe @Nikou is interested in getting a detailled idea of solar gains inside the zone. Considering the surfaces of the space that she is modeling are still convex I would model the whole thing as one zone and use the surfaces to zones approach (@Nikou: there is an example on hydra). Also I would advice setting the shadowing parameter to full exterior and interior i this is not already the Honeybee default.
That way you can also set the boundary condition of the sidewalls of your space to adiabatic.

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