I just wanted to pose a question / make a suggestion around the ‘ApplyLoadVals’ component:
The current component includes inputs for “vent_per_floor_” and “vent_per_person_”
But, currently there are no inputs for “ach” or for “_flow_per_zone” in this component.
Currently I think those inputs can only be found on the “HB Ventilation” builder (right?).
I just waned to recommend that in the future, adding those two inputs to the ‘ApplyLoadVals’ would be helpful and make it a bit less confusing to folks (was certainly a bit confusing to me at first).
I think that of all the program load inputs, those are the only ones missing from this component? I think it would just make it all more consistent if they were included and certainly would make it easier to gain control over the Vent loads.
Not a big deal, just something I think would be a nice change unless there is some important reason they are not included in that component?
Hi @edpmay/@chris, this comes as a total surprise to me - I didn’t realise there was a perZone or ACH parameter. I definitely second Ed’s suggestion to make this more obvious.
Is it the case that all 4 of these inputs are added up to define the total ventilation? I’ve had instances in the past where I set perFloor and perPerson to 0 for testing - in those cases, would there still have been some ventilation due to the default ACH?
Yes: as far as I know these are summed up in E+. That was how I’d found it originally - I thought I was zeroing out everything using ApplyLoadVals component, the but some airflow kept popping up. Not all Programs include all four flows though, so you don’t always have to set all four to zero every time, depending on the base program.
That’s a good suggestion and I just implemented it:
I was originally thinking that it was only hospitals and labs that needed to make use of the ACH property but, with the passive house use case, I think there’s enough to justify adding it. I also added the absolute flow_per_zone property (in m3/s) on the “HB Apply Absolute Loads” component and I implemented it in a manner that overrides all of the other ventilation inputs (vent_per_floor, vent_per_person, vent_ach).
Along these lines, you are correct, @edpmay , that Honeybee just adds the four types of ventilation together unless you are explicitly overwriting them with the “HB Apply Absolute Loads” component. The EnergyPlus implementation of this is more confusing with a ton of conditionals but I tried to keep it simple in Honeybee.
