[BLDG-SIM] Zoning Granularity in Modeling

[Paul Erickson]

I agree with Paul's statement that the extent of zoning often falls between the two scenarios previously mentioned.  My experience modeling complex buildings has shown that more extensive zoning is often required, especially if we desire to produce more "honest" and "useful" results.  Paul suggests studying the issue of granularity.  Is anyone aware of work that has been done on this topic?  Has anyone made a comparison of three zoning approaches for the same building (i.e. coarse granularity in the SD phase modeling; coarse granularity in the detailed phase modeling; and fine/medium granularity in the detailed phase modeling)?  What sort of results are seen?  
 
With LEED, EPACT, and code-compliance modeling on the rise, it seems that the energy modeling community would want to affirm or reaffirm the approach to zoning granularity that would best provide a balance of credibility (usefulness), consistency (i.e. % savings) and value (time/budget), seeing as many clients in the marketplace are skeptical of energy modeling.  
 
Paul Erickson
Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
 
 
>>> "Paul Riemer" <PaulR at TWGI.com> 8/23/2007 10:45 am >>>
Thank you Kevin & Jeff for showing everyone the extreme range of
modeling approaches in our profession.  I happen to think the answer is
somewhere in the middle for most buildings types and analysis goals.  

Given the rise of LEED & EPACT, our industry needs more published best
practices addressing things like zoning granularity but before we can
write those we probably need to study them. 

Would anyone like to work together to find money and/or time to study
how sensitive energy and savings predictions are to zoning granularity
or other basic modeling practices?

Paul Riemer
THE WEIDT GROUP


-----Original Message-----
From: BLDG-SIM at gard.com [mailto:BLDG-SIM at gard.com] On Behalf Of Jeff
Haberl
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 1:56 PM
To: BLDG-SIM at gard.com
Subject: [BLDG-SIM] max number of tracked modifications exceeded

Why do you need so many zones? Five per floor is the usual, two can also
suffice. 

Jeff
BB 8=!  8=)  :=)  8=)  ;=)  8=)  8=(  8=)  :=')  8=)  8=)  8=? BB

Jeff S. Haberl, Ph.D.,
P.E.............................jhaberl at esl.tamu.edu

Professor......................................................Office
Ph: 979-845-6507

Department of Architecture.......................Lab Ph: 979-845-6065 

Energy Systems Laboratory.......................FAX: 979-862-2457 

Texas A&M University..............................77843-3581

College Station, Texas, USA.......................URL: www-esl.tamu.edu

BB 8=/  8=)  :=)  8=)  ;=)  8=)  8=()  8=) 8=?  8=)  8=)  8= BB


----- Original Message -----
From: BLDG-SIM at gard.com <BLDG-SIM at gard.com>
To: BLDG-SIM at gard.com <BLDG-SIM at gard.com>
Sent: Wed Aug 22 12:29:23 2007
Subject: [BLDG-SIM] max number of tracked modifications exceeded

Ok, this could be embarrassing, but I got to know.



Could anyone shed some light on this error message I keep getting?  As
it turns out, I ended up with 405 zones.  I heard Doe-2.1 was limited to
99zones, is there a new limit for Doe 2.2. 



I was under the assumption that when modeling for LEED certification
each space in the architectural design should be modeled as a separate
space for building simulation, is this thought right or completely
wrong?  Thanks for the help.



Kevin


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