Problems on exporting Energy Analysis from Revit to EnergyPlus

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I am trying to do an energy analysis of a 4 storey building modelled in Revit.

My ideia is to use the Revit model of the building to do an energy analysis in EnergyPlus.

Firstly, I am doing some trials to understand how the exporting process works and what are the information translated from Revit to EnergyPlus.

I am using Building Elements in the Energy Analysis in Revit. I created two Spaces in the 4th floor of the building and attached these two Spaces to one Zone I have created. When I run the energy simulation in Revit I end up with an energy analysis of the entire building. (I was expecting to have an Energy Analysis of only the two spaces I have created.)

In consequence, when I export the energy analysis from Revit to an IDF file, it comes with 120 zones. When I try to open the IDF file in SkecthUp (using OpenStudio Legacy pluggin), it comes with a very messed up geometry. The walls, roofs, cellings and floors are not defined at all.

I was aiming to export only the Spaces I have created.

Am I doing something wrong?? How can I proceed with my EnergyPlus analysis using an energy model from Revit?

Please, find attached a document which explains and shows my input in Revit and the correspondent output in EnergyPlus.

Gratitude,

Kathlen

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The reason that you have the energy model for the whole building is that you are using Building Elements to create the energy model. Using Building Element mode, Revit uses building objects like roof, walls, and floors to automatically create the energy model. In your case, since you are trying to just include the zone that you created 4th floor, I would export gbXML file using spaces from Revit and save it on my machine, Then upload it to GBS website manually. 

See this document on how to Export gbXML file using Rooms and Spaces in Revit (Link).

See this document on how to create a new project in GBS and upload gbXML file (Link).

In this process, Revit exports your zone and considers all surrounding objects as shading in the model.

About creating IDF file: Currently exporting IDF from Revit and GBS is being updated to newest version of EnergyPlus. So I would recommend you to download the gbXML file from Revit/GBS (in your case GBS) and Open it in Sketchup and exporting it to IDF using OpenStudio Plugin.

Here to help if additional clarification is needed.

[wbecchina]

Hello,

how are IDF files exported from Revit 2016?

[stephanie.egger]

Hi @wbecchina,

You can export an idf from Revit through Results & Compare. There are more instructions and information here. 

Best,

Stephanie

[wbecchina]

Thank you.
I'll check this out.

Will Becchina
(631) 553-4885