[Trace-users] High Gas Usage In March

[Ben Hollon]

I am working to align an energy model with an existing 7-story office
building. The building has two air handlers, one serves the exterior of the
building and one serves the interior. Both are constant volume units and
treat their associated portion of the building as a single zone. Very odd
system, but very old building.



I had both units as single zone systems but was having a difficult time
aligning the gas usage for the exterior AHU. Turns out the AHU has a hot
deck and a cold deck and mixes down to serve the whole building, and
controls are very limited, requiring the heating deck to always maintain
110 degF if the exterior is calling for heating. This 110 degF is mixed
down with the cold deck to 85-90, essentially wasting the gas it took to
get it up to 110… a very easy ECM. So I switched the system type to dual
duct and my gas usage started aligning perfectly, with the exception of
March.



My schedules are all Jan-Dec since it’s an office building, I haven’t
manipulated the default weather file for Kansas City, Missouri, and my only
other gas load is domestic hot water which has the ‘Available 100%’
schedule. So I’m at a loss as to why my March gas usage is so high, pretty
much equal with January usage, which is twice what the building is actually
using in March. The gas consumption curve which bottoms out in the summer
and peaks in the winter looks like every other curve I’ve seen with the
exception of March.



I’ve poured through my inputs and the output reports and can’t find
anything. Has anyone ever experienced this, or know the dumb input I
probably screwed up?



Thanks!



[image: cid:image003.png at 01CDAB78.6524ACE0]

*Ben Hollon*

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