Francesco,
I don?t believe TRNSYS can model daylighting, but I would email the TRNSYS list to be sure, trnsys-users at cae.wisc.edu.
What we do is model the daylighting using Radiance/Daysim, and then integrate those results into TRNSYS by adjusting the artificial lighting schedule.
In general it is difficult to model ASHRAE 90.1 system types in TRNSYS, but doable. Also, I would discourage you from modeling more than 20-30 zones as it gets cumbersome in TRNSYS.
We typically use TRNSYS to design complex systems, and then adjust other software such as eQuest to match for compliance modeling. Sometimes an exceptional calculation is required when the changes are just too much for eQuest.
Our experience is that model reviewers don?t understand TRNSYS as it doesn?t provide ?canned? reports like TRACE or eQuest that are familiar to them.
Good luck.
Fred Betz PhD., LEED AP
Francesco and Fred,
Fred is correct that TRNSYS does not have any built in daylighting
computation and that importing available daylight schedules from
Radiance or Daysim would be the best approach. I have used some other
simplified approaches in TRNSYS but neither was for a LEED model.
Having managed to navigate the LEED process with about 15 TRNSYS
models over the years, I would contend that the nature of the building
and its systems should drive the decision as to whether to use TRNSYS
for the modeling or whether to opt for another tool. We've worked on
some projects that relied on more conventional energy efficiency
measures and felt that TRNSYS was not the right tool to be using. We've
also worked on LEED projects that had such a highly sophisticated
proposed HVAC system that there was probably not another tool out there
that could have been used. I'd be happy to talk more with you offline
about it but my advice would be to try and let the project choose the
simulation software.
Best,
David BRADLEY