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Earth cooling tubes

 
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josebcruz



Posts: 3
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:18 pm    Post subject: Earth cooling tubes Reply with quote

Hello Support Team,

I have to model a a earth cooling tube.

Cooling tubes are long, underground metal pipes through which air is drawn. The idea is that as the air travels through the pipes, it gives up some of its heat to the surrounding soil, entering the house as cooler air.

How can I model this?

Its possible create a air cold source in DB?

Regards,
José
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AJ Lester



Posts: 86
Location: Auckland
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello José,

I believe I am right in saying that earth tubes are not currently available in DesignBuilder. The best solution is likely to be to export the model as an .idf file and then use EnergyPlus to implement the Earth Tube, as EnergyPlus does have a specifically designed EarthTube model. That said, I have never tried to model that system in EnergyPlus, so cannot comment on how difficult it would be.

As an alternative, if you already know the rate at which cold air should be introduced to the space, you may be able to work around the problem by creating some form of scheduled cooling that mimics the behaviour you would expect of the earth tube.

In fact, here is a reply I just found from an earlier post on the subject:

Quote:
Hello,

You can't enter it directly in DesignBuilder by now but yo can add an earth tube definition in a text file to be included automatically in your simulation.

To do this, read InputOutpud EnergyPlus documentation then in the Simulation dialog, go to Advance tab and select your file under the idf heading.

Regards,
_________________
Laurent


So it would appear that you may be able to follow this method, which would hopefully be easier than either of the other methods I mentioned (the second of which is likely to be too inaccurate for serious use anyway).

Hopefully this helps,

All the best with your modelling work!

Regards,

Andrew Lester
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AJ Lester



Posts: 86
Location: Auckland
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi again José,

I should have mentioned, the section of documentation that Laurent referred to in his post is the Input/Output Reference document that comes with EnergyPlus, pages 360-366 though you may also need to read some other sections to get a better understanding of some aspects of the model.

In addition, to run the EarthTube Model at appropriate design conditions, the Input/Output Reference suggests that you will need to run the CalcSoilSurfTemp preprogram to get the soil surface conditions that are needed as inputs to the EarthTube model. So if you don't already have the EnergyPlus package, you will likely need to download it to be able to use these preprocessors.

Again, all the best.

Regards,

Andrew
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josebcruz



Posts: 3
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:34 pm    Post subject: Earth Tube Reply with quote

Hello Support Team,

I would like to thank you the help you gave me last time.Very Happy

I entered an idf file with the earth tube definition in DesignBuilder and it works ok.
However, I can’t see the earth tube output in DB, only in an indirect way using the cooling energy.

It’s possible to see these results in DB or I have to export the file to Energy+.

all the best

Regards,
José
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