This document provides an in-depth look at plant modeling in EnergyPlus. Plant refers to the subset of HVAC that involves hydronic equipment for heating, cooling, and service water heating (or domestic hot water).
This guide serves as an aid to help model plant systems in EnergyPlus simulations. It is intended to augment the Input Output Reference, which describes the syntax and the details of individual input objects. This guide will discuss how the different objects can be used to construct a plant loop that can service a building load.
This document begins with some general information to introduce users to the syntax used in EnergyPlus as well as this guide. Then some basic conversion methods needed to take a real system and format it to simplify the input process are provided. The bulk of this Application Guide is devoted to modeling example systems. The example systems are intended to demonstrate the input process for various types of plant systems, such as systems that use thermal energy storage tanks and those that have a primary/secondary pumping configurations.
The example systems are defined by breaking the system into its constituent loops. The loops are then separated into supply and demand sides. These half-loops are then defined by branches, connectors, and components. The controls for each loop are set after the loop has been completed. Figures and flowcharts are used to display the definition process. The flow charts should be read from top to bottom and each branched level should be read from left to right.
The Object Class Names and Object Names used in the flow charts match those used in the input file provided for the example. One thing that is not specified in the flow charts or figures is the node names used. The various object class names and object names used in the examples refer to the entries in the example input files.
Introduction[LINK]
This document provides an in-depth look at plant modeling in EnergyPlus. Plant refers to the subset of HVAC that involves hydronic equipment for heating, cooling, and service water heating (or domestic hot water).
This guide serves as an aid to help model plant systems in EnergyPlus simulations. It is intended to augment the Input Output Reference, which describes the syntax and the details of individual input objects. This guide will discuss how the different objects can be used to construct a plant loop that can service a building load.
Organization[LINK]
This document begins with some general information to introduce users to the syntax used in EnergyPlus as well as this guide. Then some basic conversion methods needed to take a real system and format it to simplify the input process are provided. The bulk of this Application Guide is devoted to modeling example systems. The example systems are intended to demonstrate the input process for various types of plant systems, such as systems that use thermal energy storage tanks and those that have a primary/secondary pumping configurations.
The example systems are defined by breaking the system into its constituent loops. The loops are then separated into supply and demand sides. These half-loops are then defined by branches, connectors, and components. The controls for each loop are set after the loop has been completed. Figures and flowcharts are used to display the definition process. The flow charts should be read from top to bottom and each branched level should be read from left to right.
The Object Class Names and Object Names used in the flow charts match those used in the input file provided for the example. One thing that is not specified in the flow charts or figures is the node names used. The various object class names and object names used in the examples refer to the entries in the example input files.
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This documentation is made available under the EnergyPlus Open Source License v1.0.