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Jacob,<br><br>I have found performance of passive solar houses to be particularly sensitive to zoning choices. If you "over-zone" your house, you'll find that the direct gain areas overheat even if the other zones are cool, unless you properly distribute the energy using mechanical or natural circulation. For 1000 SF, I would consider going with two zones. One for the direct gain zone, and one for non-direct gain zone, depending on the interior layout. For houses of that size with minimal glazing one zone would probably be enough. My belief is that unless you truly know how the air flows between zones, you're not gaining anything by using an excessive number of zones. Also, you might consider using a simulation tool that accurately models thermal mass using the finite difference method. <br><br>Liam O'Brien<br><br><hr id="stopSpelling">Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:44:51 -0700<br>From: jacobfaiola@yahoo.com<br>To: bldg-sim@lists.onebuilding.org<br>Subject: [Bldg-sim] zoning for a small single family dwelling<br><br>
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</style><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"><div>I am modeling a 1000 sf single family dwelling for the Solar Decathlon, a net zero home design competition.</div>
<div>I would like to maximize the accuracy of the model. Does it make sense to zone each room individually so I can precisely assign activity areas?</div>
<div>Or should I just zone the whole house as single family residential and let eQUEST figure that out?</div>
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<div>thanks,</div>
<div>Jacob Faiola</div></div><br> <br /><hr />Live connected. <a href='http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9724459' target='_new'>Get Hotmail & Messenger for mobile.</a></body>
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