I have a question about the SolarCollectorFlate PlateWater example.
I ran it unaltered with the Chicago O'Hare TMY2 .epw weather file. I read the .CSV output into Excel and I'm comparing column L (STORAGE TANK:Water Heater Source Rate) against column AA (Collector1: Solar Collector Heat Transfer Rate) multiplied by 6 (there are 6 collectors). The value for timestep July 01, 8:30 AM is 6620 for the former, 3770 for the latter. Going forward through the time steps, the values become fairly close but not nearly identical.
I would expect from conservation of energy that the heat energy going into the tank would equal the heat energy leaving the collectors. What do I not understand about Energy Plus?
Thanks!
Edwin Cox