Creating schedules

[Daisy_]

Hello Ecotect users,

I just got into Ecotect and I therefore need help. I'm trying to create occupancy, internal gains and infiltration rate schedules. I have kind of figured out how to set the occupancy schedules, what I'm grapling with the most are the other two. How do I even start? Please help me. 

Thanks! 

DAISY

[Pennetier1 · Accepted solution]

Hi DAISY, 

Every schedule works the same way, so if you are able to work out the occupancy schedules, then you got it made!

What you need to know, and you probably found that out already, is that the schedules are based on a % basis.

For occupancies, if you set your hourly schedule to 50% and your occupancy is set to 10, then Ecotect will use 5 occupant in the zone for these hour.

Same thing for the Ventilation and internal gains.  Setting your hourly schedule to 100% will make Ecotect use the same number you have set in the zone's internal gains and ventilation rate.

This is why it is best practice to set your zone's occupants and infiltration/ internal gains, to their maximum expected, and then you can decrease these numbers using the schedule.  So if your zone is set to have internal gains to 10 W/m2, you can create a schedule with hourly schedule to say 15 or 20% during the night hours, so that you should see a reduction of internal gains (equipment only) during the night times.  You can of course create another hourly schedule where all hours is set to 10% or whatever, and assign that hourly schedule to these dates in the yearly calendar when you expect a Holiday and the zone will not be occupied (same for weekends).

I hope that makes sense!  These schedules are a bit intimidating to get started, but once you understand you are dealing with really an hourly schedule THEN you can assign that schedule to any day of the year, it starts to make more sense.

Let me know if you have more questions on this topic, otherwise please accept as a solution so that others can benefit from this information.

Cheers,

[Daisy_ · Accepted solution]

Hello Pennetier, 

Thanks for the response. So does that mean I can use the same occupancy schedule for the ventilation and internal gains? 

I have another query. How do I fix the error ..' Zone xx does not appear to be a fully enclosed thermal zone' ?

[Pennetier1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Daisy, 

Indeed, you can, if you feel that your ventilation schedule would match your occupancy schedule - which is not quite always the case.  But something like internal gain is often related to occupancy, whereas when occupant leave the building, they often turn off lights and equipments, but that is not always the case in large office spaces unfortunately.  Personally, I rarely apply any ventilation schedule unless I want to simulate the users opening or closing the windows for ventilation.  In that case, set the ACH to the maximum you would estimate when all windows are open, and use the schedule to vary this number; for example, set your zone to 100 ACH for breezy cross ventilation, then in the summer evenings you can set your schedule to 100%, and maybe 0% in the middle of the day when you want to close the windows when it is too hot outside.

About the error message, your geometry is probably not quite perfect on that zone and Ecotect sees a "leak". The thermal zone needs to be perfectly enclosed so that Ecotect knows the volume of air in that zone.  Imagine you pour water in the zone, you do not want to see any leaks.  Windows and void objects are ok as they are children of wall objects.  If you feel your zone is already tight, you might have to rebuilt a particular wall or ceiling or floor object... it happens sometimes.  Send me your .eco if you keep running into that error message.

I hope that helps.

Let me know if you have more questions on this topic, otherwise please accept as a solution so that others can benefit from this information.

Cheers,