Re: [EnergyPlus_Support] Re: Earth tubes and airflownetwork

Interesting results. I'll try to do some more looking into it, but it seems you are correct, that there is some anomaly in the airflow network that 'sometimes' doesn't like having earth tubes. I'll let you know if I find anything out.

Edwin

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 10:07 PM, Kristin Field <fieldkm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks, Edwin. Thinking about your example, I tried 3 things, and
here's what happened:

1. I took the file I had been working with (created by someone else,
but I couldn't readily see anything severely wrong with it) and
deleted the whole airflownetwork. The warning that the earth tube
object was an "orphan" went away.

2. Since the above mentioned file used a multizone afn, I added one
earth tube to the AirflowNetwork_Multizone_SmallOffice.idf file. It
gave me an orphan message similar to what the other file (from #1) had
been giving me:

** Warning ** The following lines are "Orphan Objects". These
objects are in the idf
** ~~~ ** file but are never obtained by the simulation and
therefore are NOT used.
** ~~~ ** See InputOutputReference document for more details.
************* Object=EARTHTUBE=RESISTIVE ZONE

3. As I think you did, I added an earth tube in the LIVING ZONE of the
AirflowNetwork_SimpleHouse.idf file. This did not give me orphan
warnings.

So it would seem to me that a certain level of complexity in the afn
makes it impossible for the earth tube model to run. Would anyone
like to confirm or deny this?

Thanks,
Kristin

--- In EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Edwin Lee" <leeed2001@...>
wrote:

>
> Kristin:
>
> I didn't look into the full simulation results, but just for kicks,
I took
> the E+ example file AirflowNetwork_SimpleHouse, and added an earth
tube to
> the Living Zone. E+ ran fully without any errors or warnings.
>
> Again, the results may be funny, but I would think if anything had gone
> wrong, E+ would have complained. The earth tube is set up simply as
zone
> equipment. The earth tube will not directly interact with the airflow
> network, but they will both be accounted for in the zone heat balance
> calculations.
>
> Edwin
>
> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Kristin Field <fieldkm@...> wrote:
>
> > Clarification: could they both be used on the same zone if one was
> > scheduled to operate during the summer and the other during the winter
> > (i.e., same zone, but not same time)? I have a feeling the answer is
> > no, but I thought I should check here just in case.
> >
> > --- In

EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<EnergyPlus_Support%40yahoogroups.com>,

> > "Kristin Field"
> >
> > <fieldkm@> wrote:
> > >
> > > It seems to me from the way that the earth tube model is set up that
> > > it is probably not possible to use earth tubes and the
airflownetwork
> > > on the same zone. Am I correct about that? If it is possible to do
> > > both, does anyone have any guidance as to how?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Kristin
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>