People Load by Occupant Count

Are we able to set the People load for just occupant count? I see it available in EnergyPlus, but it doesn’t seem available in Pollination or the Honeybee component. Is there a reason it’s only based on area? I suppose this really only applies to residential occupancies?

Hi @brentwatanabe,

I beleive it is possible. Have you tried to change this under the loads tab?

The value here should overwrite the default value in the program type.

@mostapha,

Indeed it’s there at the room level, interesting. I was making a program and in there it doesn’t show up. Is that a bug? Only by area is an option.

Good question! @mingbo is the right person to answer this.

It’s also in the Honeybee component as Area only which makes sense from a commercial point of view. But for a single dwelling unit, I think we only want the number of bedrooms + 1 as the occupant load.

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Hi @brentwatanabe,

We also have a component for setting up the absolute values for a room, which is the same as what we have in the Rhino plugin:

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Hi @brentwatanabe

Once “By Room Program Type” is unchecked, the following people setting will override the people load from the room program.

Hi @Mingbo,

That makes sense at the room level, no issues there. So what you’re saying is you can’t set the program type to be people/room, you can only do it at the next level down ie: room properties? Probably not a big deal since it’s so easy to edit all the rooms at once, but if you’re making a custom program, is it best practice to then have the people load as 0 and then modify the loads at the room properties level?

Apologies for my oversight on that component!
:man_facepalming:t4:

Right, people/room is only available under room properties at the room level, and you cannot set it via propgram type.

I think it makes sense for custom residential program types, change the people load to 0 in the program type and set the absolute people count in room property.

Thanks for the explanation @mingbo!