Rhino plugin - adaptive comfort questions

[chriss]

Hi everyone,

I’m learning to use the Rhino plugin for Adaptive Comfort simulations. I have a few questions:

1. Adaptive comfort map recipe asks for a DDY file- I’m not sure why this is, as I don’t need to do sizing? Where would I get such a file? I have an EPW but not DDY.
2. How do I select EN-15251 instead of ASHRAE? I can see the entry box for this, but not clear what the string should be?
   
3. How do I change the neutral offset in the Rhino plugin? I can do this in the LB Adaptive Comfort parameters component within Grasshopper.
4. Can I use Rhino plugin to build the geometry, set up schedules, constructions etc, but then run everything in grasshopper? I assume I could bring in all the rooms and apertures into Grasshopper, then do everything else from there?
5. If I run in Rhino, can I then do the visualisations in Grasshopper? How is this done?
6. How do I set window opening controls in the Rhino plugin (e.g., open by temperature)? I know how to do this in Grasshopper/Honeybee using the HB Ventilation Control component.

Thanks!

Chris

[mostapha]

Hi @chriss, thank you for posting these questions on the forum. I leave the answers that are related to the recipe for @chriswmackey and reply to the ones that are related to the relationship between the Rhino and the Grasshopper plugin.

@chriss

4. Can I use Rhino plugin to build the geometry, set up schedules, constructions etc, but then run everything in grasshopper? I assume I could bring in all the rooms and apertures into Grasshopper, then do everything else from there?

Yes. You can use the Model component that comes with Pollination Rhino plugin to import the full model into Grasshopper. It translates the Pollination model from Rhino to a HB model in Grasshopper. There will be no data loss.

@chriss

5. If I run in Rhino, can I then do the visualisations in Grasshopper? How is this done?

Yes. You can. If you run the simulation from Rhino on Pollination Cloud, then you can download the results in Grasshopper using the Pollination Grasshopper component. Here is a video that shows how it can be done.

Visualize Results - Pollination User Manual

If you run the simulation locally, then you need to locate the result files and load them into Grasshopper.

[chriss]

Thanks @mostapha, really helpful answers. Look forward to hearing back from @chriswmackey on the other questions.

[chriswmackey]

Sorry for the late response, @chriss . These are all good questions and I’ll try to answer the ones @mostapha left to me now:

1. Adaptive comfort map recipe asks for a DDY file- I’m not sure why this is, as I don’t need to do sizing? Where would I get such a file? I have an EPW but not DDY.

There’s always a sizing calculation that runs with the DDY file at the start of every EnergyPlus simulation. I realize that your particular building might be completely passive, which begs the question of “what is being sized in this calculation?” The answer may very well be “nothing” if all of your Rooms are unconditioned but we still always ask for the DDY file (just in case) since a lot of people run adaptive comfort simulations with models that include heating systems without cooling systems (which still requires that these heating systems by sized with the DDY criteria). Furthermore, there are occasionally some people who still use the Adaptive model for “mixed mode” buildings, which have a hybrid of natural ventilation and active cooling and these cooling systems still need to sized.

2. How do I select EN-15251 instead of ASHRAE? I can see the entry box for this, but not clear what the string should be?

Simply change the comfort-parameters to be the following:

--standard EN-15251

You’ll see that there are actually a lot of parameters that you can adjust on the Adaptive comfort model by using the LB Adaptive Comfort Parameters component. If you only specify the standard (as I did above), all of the other parameters will default to aligning with the standard (eg. the --prevail-method will change to RunningMean instead of AveragedMonthly).

3. How do I change the neutral offset in the Rhino plugin? I can do this in the LB Adaptive Comfort parameters component within Grasshopper.

See above. One of the comfort-parameters that you can change is --neutral-offset. So, if you want to change the offset to 2C with the EN15251 model, just use the following comfort parameters:

--standard EN-15251 --neutral-offset 2

6. How do I set window opening controls in the Rhino plugin (e.g., open by temperature)? I know how to do this in Grasshopper/Honeybee using the HB Ventilation Control component.

To be honest, I haven’t yet tested the Rhino plugin’s features for assigning natural ventilation but @mingbo can answer any questions that arise here and I see that he put a “Controls” section under the “Room Properties” menu that allows you to specify the temperature setpoints for natural ventilation:

To get the natural ventilation in the model to work, you will also have to set the individual Apertures that are operable to have a checked “Is Operable” property under the “Aperture Properties” menu:

It looks like Mingbo also added a whole menu to adjust the various fluid dynamic properties of the Aperture:

[chriss]

Thanks Chris, really helpful.

On 1, a couple of questions:

• where can I get (or make) DDY files?
• If I have a building that is only heated, does this count as unconditioned? I typically like to model buildings like this with a heating control so that the temps don’t drop too low in the shoulder months. By selecting “unconditioned”, is the heating disabled?

Chris

[chriswmackey]

DDY files come with any EPW file that you download from the DoE or OneBuilding (basically all files on EPWmap have them). You can also make your own with the Ladybug components if you’re an engineer and you know what you’re doing.

Yes, heated buildings are conditioned and the heating system still needs to be assigned and sized with the DDY criteria.