Zoning Layouts

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I am modeling a building with different zoning on the first and second floor. I know I can accomplish this with 2 different shells but I also have a space that is two stories tall (similar to an atrium). Has anyone encountered this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Kevin

Edward Kucirek's picture
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Hi Edward,

What I had done in a similar situation was- create 2 different zones in the
wizard, and in the detail edit mode, assign that specific space to the zone
of the other floor, and then I deleted the other zone (as it had no
space assigned to it). I guess this would be right way to do it, but I am
not completely sure.

Hopefully this helps :)

Regards
Supriya

Supriya Goel's picture
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Kevin,

Assuming your two story space has the same footprint across floors,
please see attached screenshots.
You can locate the screen under Building Footprint > Zone
Characteristics.
You could define it as a 'multi-level space' on the lower floor, and as
a 'multi-level space' and 'open to below'
for the upper floor. The multi-level space can be defined as conditioned
or unconditioned per your design.
Hope this helps,
Umesh

Umesh Atre's picture
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Joined: 2011-09-30
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With the approach Umesh suggested this is on the right track to one way of
doing what you need, but take care to note the difference between a
"multi-level" space and "open-to-below". Using them both together might not
get you what you need.

Within one shell--a multi-level space is thought of as more than one floor
height within one shell. If you use two shells and stack them on top of
each other--I would not use the multi-level space option, I would only input
"open-to-below" from the zone in the second level shell. Turning on the
multi-level characteristics in more than one building shell may turn on some
zone characteristics that you don't want 'turned on' in your model. I found
the information for the two inputs in the help files for eQuest.

If you need more detail on this feel free to contact me. ALWAYS a good rule
of thumb...Just make sure that YOU know what your model is doing with each
input you specify--don't just trust anyone. What works in one model might
not work for your model--that is up to you as the simulator to figure out
and to insure the validity of your simulation results.

Pasha

Pasha Korber-Gonzalez's picture
Joined: 2011-09-30
Reputation: 600

I want to thank everyone who replied to help me. I wanted to share the results I came to as some people responded only to me and not to all users. I received a couple of suggested similar to the one listed below:

"For two story lobbies, I have included a
lobby space and zone in each of the shells, and then in detail mode deleted the
second floor space and zone, and then increase the size of the first floor zone?s
exterior walls."

This works well but has to be done in detailed edit. I also received the emails below about using the zone characteristics to achieve this in wizard mode.

With my model I successfully accomplished my goal by modeling two shells for the first and second floor. I zoned each shell according to the different thermal zones. The two story area has the exact same zone coordinates.

I then went into the zone characteristics. On the second floor making the zone both open to below and a mutli level atrium. On the first floor I made it a multi level atrium and changed the conditioned height up to the full height of the second level. If you do not change conditioned height then there will be a gap in your building. See attachment.

Kevin

Edward Kucirek's picture
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