Zone temperature distribution

andystone · Posts: 1

Hi,

I'm new to EnergyPlus and DesignBuilder and am trying to understand how best to model my building.

My first question is that I have a displacement ventilation system and I'm wondering what is the best way of modelling this? I've seen somewhere in the documentation that you shouldn't divide the zone into two spaces on top of each other and should use the dynamic gradient air temperature distribution instead. The problem is I have no idea how to set the input parameters - are the defaults reasonable for a displacement system? From looking in the EnergyPlus documentation there are other room air models available, should I be using one of those (e.g. Mundt)? I think that would mean manually editing the IDF file?

My second question is related - I have an atrium (about 30m high) that the main office floors open on to. I assume that the same advice for modelling air temperature distribution applies - use the room air model, don't subdivide the space. Again, how should I choose the inputs for the temperature distribution model? And is EnergyPlus smart enough to account for the lower office floors seeing lower temperatures than the higher ones (and so should have lower heat gains due to air exchange with the atrium)?

Thanks for any help (or pointers to the correct section in the manual),

Andy

Laurent_Support · Posts: 292 Location: Vincennes

Hi Andy,

I'm sorry but there is no quick and easy solution to your problem. It is one the reason why DesignBuilder CFD will be proposed in the future.

Except looking for documentation or real cases experimentations, you won't find how to fill the dynamic gradient value.

More specifically about DesignBuilder and EnergyPlus, you find every features and capabilities ... remains to feed them with fairly good data!

I hope you will find or someone here could give you some links to documentation.

regards,
Laurent

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