Internal partition: outer and inner surfaces

menimota · Posts: 15

Hi everybody,
I'm trying to simulate the impact of the thickness of an insulationg material on an internal partition, which divides a heated zone from a non-conditioned. so, when i'm defining the layers of the partition, from both sides (the heated and the cold zone) the same construction appears to me, and same outer and inner zone order. so, if I want the insulation to be against the cold zone, so the outest layer counting from the heated zone, what should I do?

Andy Tindale · Posts: 2432 Location: Stroud

From the help at:

http://www.designbuilder.co.uk/helpv2/Content/_Construction_layer_data.htm

You should define the layers in the same order they appear in the actual construction starting with the outermost layer and finishing with the innermost. The outermost layer will be positioned adjacent to outside (or in the case of Semi--exposed walls) adjacent to the semi-exposed unconditioned zone.

For interior surfaces (partitions, internal floors etc) the order of the layers is determined through a series of checks to see which zone is relatively ‘more external’. So, for example, if one zone is unconditioned and the other not then the partition layers are ordered so that the "outermost layer" (i.e. the first one defined in the list) is next to the unconditioned zone. When both zones are occupied, a similar check is made using heating and cooling setpoint temperatures. If after all these checks the zones are still both equally ‘internal’ then the direction of the layers will be set up in an arbitrary way.

So in answer to your question, if you want to test the effect of reversing the order of the partition layers you should set up 2 partition constructions with opposite layer ordering and compare the effect of using both in the model.

Andy

menimota · Posts: 15

Thank you Andy, your answer couldn't be clearer!

Luca

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