[Equest-users] Ground temperatures

Joe Huang yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
Thu Oct 24 20:07:50 PDT 2013


The ground temperatures in the EnergyPlus EPW should be exactly the same 
those in the DOE-2 BIN of the same weather file, because I remember 
extracting the GTEMP subroutine from the DOE-2 weather packer and 
providing it to the EnergyPlus development team some 15 years ago or so.

Joe

On 10/24/2013 7:36 PM, Simge Andolsun wrote:
> Dear Joe Huang,
>
> Yes, I am aware of this. I am trying to make the ground heat transfer 
> calculation parameters I will use in EnergyPlus as similar as possible 
> to those in eQuest in order to prevent them from being the cause of 
> variation between the two programs. So, regardless of how unreliable 
> or approximate these ground temperatures may be, I am OK with this at 
> the moment. But, thank you very much for making this point. It is very 
> true.
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 8:07 PM, Joe Huang 
> <yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com 
> <mailto:yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com>> wrote:
>
>     Simge,
>
>     If you know what's happening to the ground temperatures in DOE-2,
>     you should then know that they are calculated by a sine-curve
>     equation developed by Tamami Kusuda in the early 1980's that takes
>     up only 10 lines of code in the DOE-2 weather packer, using
>     default values for soil diffusivity and ignoring the effects of 
>     water table, surface evapotranspiration, or geothermal anomalies. 
>     In other words, these ground temperatures are extremely approximate.
>
>
>     Joe
>
>     Joe Huang
>     White Box Technologies, Inc.
>     346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 108D
>     Moraga CA 94556
>     yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com  <mailto:yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com>
>     http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com  for simulation-ready weather data
>     (o)(925)388-0265  <tel:%28925%29388-0265>
>     (c)(510)928-2683  <tel:%28510%29928-2683>
>     "building energy simulations at your fingertips"
>
>
>     On 10/24/2013 6:45 PM, Simge Andolsun wrote:
>>     Kapil hi! :) Great to hear from you!
>>     Dear Joe and Nick,
>>
>>     Thanks for all your responses.
>>
>>     I actually know what's happening to the ground temperatures in
>>     DOE-2, how they are used in ground heat transfer calculations and
>>     their effect on overall building energy consumption. I just
>>     wanted to know how to make eQuest plot these temperatures for me.
>>     Thanks to y'all, I managed to do it. But, thank you so much for
>>     responding with this much detail!
>>
>>     Best Regards,
>>     Simge Andolsun, PhD.
>>
>>
>>     On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 5:34 PM, Kapil Upadhyaya
>>     <KapilU at kirksey.com <mailto:KapilU at kirksey.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         Simge,
>>
>>         Do keep in mind that in DOE2 these are fixed monthly averages
>>         used for all hours of the month; these are derived by the
>>         ground reaching monthly-average outside air temperature at a
>>         lag of 3 months.
>>
>>         Ground Temperature will have little effect on loads/energy in
>>         Houston for typical buildings. If you are simulating
>>         geothermal heat exchange or radiant heating (thru
>>         slab-on-grade),  then the investigation will be time worth
>>         spent.
>>
>>         Best,
>>
>>         *Kapil Upadhyaya, LEED AP*
>>         Associate
>>
>>         *Kirksey* | Architecture
>>         6909 Portwest Drive | Houston Texas 77024 |www.kirksey.com
>>         <http://www.kirksey.com>
>>         o 713 426 7508 <tel:713%C2%A0426%C2%A07508> | f 713 850 7308
>>         <tel:713%C2%A0850%C2%A07308> |kapilu at kirksey.com
>>         <mailto:kapilu at kirksey.com>
>>
>>         *2012-2013 Firm of the Year *
>>         Texas Society of Architects
>>
>>         *From:*Nick Caton [mailto:ncaton at smithboucher.com
>>         <mailto:ncaton at smithboucher.com>]
>>         *Sent:* Thursday, October 24, 2013 2:55 PM
>>         *To:* Joe Huang; equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
>>         <mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>
>>
>>
>>         *Subject:* Re: [Equest-users] Ground temperatures
>>
>>         I haven’t tried Joe’s suggested tool (yet), but here’s the
>>         hourly report variable you’re looking for:
>>
>>         (Rankine conversion reference)
>>         <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankine_scale>
>>
>>         You get here double clicking one of the hourly report items
>>         in the component tree under the “project and site” tab.  You
>>         can view the results by running the simulation then either
>>         opening the resulting .csv in the project directory or
>>         clicking the “hourly results” button on the top right of the
>>         “detailed results viewer,” which opens the same file.  Within
>>         that file scroll to the far right to check out any custom
>>         report variables you’ve included for the project.
>>
>>         Such an hourly report builds upon Joe’s observation – it
>>         appears the monthly ground temperatures are averaged into 12
>>         values over the year, then applied to each month on an hourly
>>         basis for the simulation.  I can’t speak to whether this is a
>>         trait specific to eQuest and/or the DOE-2 engine.
>>
>>         ~Nick
>>
>>         cid:489575314 at 22072009-0ABB**
>>
>>         **
>>
>>         *NICK CATON, P.E. *
>>
>>         SENIOR ENGINEER
>>
>>         Smith & Boucher Engineers
>>
>>         25501 west valley parkway, suite 200
>>
>>         olathe, ks 66061
>>
>>         direct 913.344.0036 <tel:913.344.0036>
>>
>>         fax 913.345.0617 <tel:913.345.0617>
>>
>>         www.smithboucher.com <http://www.smithboucher.com>
>>
>>         *From:*equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
>>         <mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>
>>         [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
>>         <mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>] *On
>>         Behalf Of *Joe Huang
>>         *Sent:* Thursday, October 24, 2013 2:18 PM
>>         *To:* equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
>>         <mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>
>>         *Subject:* Re: [Equest-users] Ground temperatures
>>
>>         Correction to previous e-mail, meant to say
>>
>>         "By the way, I think that DOE-2 should do some smoothing or
>>         interpolation of the monthly ground temperatures; right now
>>         if you look at ..."
>>
>>         Joe
>>
>>         Joe Huang
>>
>>         White Box Technologies, Inc.
>>
>>         346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 108D
>>
>>         Moraga CA 94556
>>
>>         yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com  <mailto:yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com>     
>>
>>         http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com  for simulation-ready weather data
>>
>>         (o)(925)388-0265  <tel:%28925%29388-0265>     
>>
>>         (c)(510)928-2683  <tel:%28510%29928-2683>     
>>
>>         "building energy simulations at your fingertips"
>>
>>
>>         On 10/24/2013 12:15 PM, Joe Huang wrote:
>>
>>         In my opinion, the easiest way to get the ground temperatures
>>         would not be through DOE-2 Hourly Reports, although I'm sure
>>         that can be done, but by reading them from the weather file
>>         using the WTHFMT2 utility program that converts the file from
>>         binary to text.  There are just 12 numbers for monthly ground
>>         temperatures, shown on line 2 of the *.FMT files.  By the
>>         way, I think that DOE-2 does some smoothing or interpolation
>>         of the monthly ground temperatures; right now if you look at
>>         the hourly heat transfer through Underground walls or floors,
>>         you'll see a wierd staircase effect with the same load for a
>>         whole month, and then a jump to a different load the next
>>         month, etc.
>>
>>         Joe
>>
>>         Joe Huang
>>
>>         White Box Technologies, Inc.
>>
>>         346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 108D
>>
>>         Moraga CA 94556
>>
>>         yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com  <mailto:yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com>     
>>
>>         http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com  for simulation-ready weather data
>>
>>         (o)(925)388-0265  <tel:%28925%29388-0265>     
>>
>>         (c)(510)928-2683  <tel:%28510%29928-2683>     
>>
>>         "building energy simulations at your fingertips"
>>
>>
>>         On 10/24/2013 11:05 AM, Simge Andolsun wrote:
>>
>>         Dear eQuest Users,
>>
>>         Would you please let me know which report would give me the
>>         deep ground temperatures used in ground heat transfer
>>         calculations of eQuest? I used to select an hourly report
>>         variable to make DOE-2.1e report these values, but I am not
>>         sure how to get these values from eQuest. Would you help me
>>         with this?
>>
>>         Thank you very much in advance for your help,
>>
>>         Best Regards,
>>
>>         Simge Andolsun, PhD.
>>
>>               
>>
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