Q: Does energyplus run an hourly simulation, similar to equest? or monthly or other?

Bob: Up to 60 iterations per hour, but I'd recommend no more than 6.

Q: What to select for the climate of India

Bob: India is a large country and contains many climate zones! There is no official data from ASHRAE 90.1 outside of a few cities (all of which are climate zone 1) but you can calculate the HDD and CDD and that determines the Climate zone. Table B3 in 90.1 shows some of the cities. Table B-4 shows the formulas. From there, it is not difficult to calculate.

Harshul: ISHRAE provides the data for most of big cities now. White box is doing a lot of work with them.

Q: So- lighting is based on building type rather than space by space

Bob: You can do either. He is just showing the initial step

Q: Is Open Studio development funded by US government?Bob: Yes. It is as well funded as most any software (I think Eplus is $3 million annually...) and many private contributors, including code donation

Q: Canadian here. Any plans to add the NECB 2011 or 2015?

Harshul: National resources canada is already working on it to bring more data for canadian locations.

Q: does OpenStudio / energy plus run an hourly simulation?

Bob: Hourly, subhourly, it can run by the minute but that would likely make it (and any software) unstable

Q: Can we import drawings or pdf floorplans?

Bob: Yes. You can draw from a screenshot of the PDF floorplans or import drawings of several types. We will cover this in the next lesson.

Q: Sketchup Make 2017 crashes at startup. I'm running it from a laptop, 64-bit Windows 7, without a dedicated GPU.

Bob: I had the same problem. Uninstall all previous versions and try to reinstall.

Q: Can the floor plan be divided into core and perimeter zones automatically like in honeybee,grasshopper?

Harshul: You can do it through OpenStudio measures. You can do anything you want in such open source applications

Q: Do you usually find not matching surfaces when you have complex floor distribution?

Bob: I do.

Harshul: There is an easy fix of this. Use OS interface version of it. It's more precise

Q: How can I check built-up area of this building?

You can see that information in output/input report

Q: can you customize schedules in OpenStudio?

Bob: Yes, and yes.

Q: How do we know how the software assigned the default space numbers?

Bob: GREAT QUESTION! This part always baffled me. You can confirm this in the OpenStudio program - I think a few ways to do this. I flagged this question to go through in detail later.

Q: Can we create our own library of schedules and code maybe? (For Example: National Energy Code for Buildings (NECB) for Canada)

Bob: Before doing this, I'd search around, there are so many libraries available for this, that you might be able to save some time. Chances are someone else has created this - just depends if they shared it.

HSS - OS comes with it's own library too with DOE reference building/ASHRAE inputs/components. You can always "save as" them, customize them & use them again in next project.

Q: does openstudio already have a database for IECC profiles as well or would I need to create them?

HSS - not for now, but you can create your own & save it for later use

Q: do we need to assign daylight control in each space seperately or can we assign it for all spaces together?

Bob: You can assign it to all spaces together or one space at a time.

Q: So i guess we can just import custom libraries into our project?

Bob: Yes, you can even import equipment, systems, etc. It is very powerful

Q: When or where do we establish the building's orientation with respect to North?

Harshul: You can either rotate the whole geometry in sketchup using sketchup tools, or make some changes in "building" section of OS interface

Q: what are the export options from sketchup files? gbxml, gem, stl? any radiance abilities in openstudio?

Bob: Great question. You can export to Gbxml from the OpenStudio Plugin (as opposed to sketchup) I don't know about the Radiance and will default to Harshul for later.

Harshul: No Radiance abilities

Q: Is it possible to open existing idf file using open studio, modify it in open studio and then read the modified idf file in EnergyPlus?

Bob: I will get back to you on thisYes, you can totally do that but with some limitations

Q: How do we model split air conditioning systems in OpenStudio?

Bob: We will be covering how to model split air conditioning systems in OpenStudio in Lesson 4

[Transcript]

Hey everyone, its Bob Fassbender here with a brief introduction. There's a surprisingly large turnout, so we will probably miss most of your questions. I'll try to look at them while Harshul is presenting, but they'll be documented, and we'll do what we can do. A brief note about why I personally started using OpenStudio, and why I think it's so promising. We just have to think about what it takes to become a building energy analyst. And, it really requires you to become an expert in three things. First, you have to become an expert on building physics and HVAC. It's pretty difficult, not something that we can really help with. Good luck to you on that, if you haven't already learned that. The next thing you have to learn software. Most software is not intuitive. And finally, 90.1 or lead simulation requires you to learn a very complicated set of rules, where each rule has at least one exception. Becoming an expert in all three topics is effectively impossible without the help of an experienced instructor, who actually does these things. 

What I like about OpenStudio is it does become relatively intuitive by learning from an experienced instructor. And also, since 90.1 is effectively a bunch of if-then-else statements, it can be transferred into computer code. I started talking to Harshul, who's sort of the master of making these things, the additional code, into OpenStudio. And, he told me some things that I had never known that can make life a lot easier for any sort of simulator. Whether that's for lead, or they just need to automate some processes. This is a lot harder to do in other software because it's not so readily able to accept third party computer code. It's also open source, so you can see the code yourself if, if that's something that you know how to do. But, without further ado, I don't want to take up too much time here. I'd like to introduce Harshul and we'll get started learning OpenStudio. 

All right. Thanks a lot Bob, for your feedback. Hi everyone, this is Harshul Singhal, as Bob mentioned. It looks like we have a nice turnover here. Almost like, a hundred plus people. And, I can see some people with whom I worked under one group, so, that's awesome. Guys, let me just give you my brief introduction here. I'm just going to open my LinkedIn page, like, just so you know what I do. As I mentioned, like, you know, I'm Harshul Singhal. I work as senior sustainability specialist for Skidmore Owings and Merrill LLP in San Francisco. And, side by side, I also teach different software. Something like OpenStudio, EnergyPlus, and some other tools. I have a good experience in the building science industry. I have worked with performing systems development in Ithaca, and before that, I was with Thornton Tomasetti for almost two years. As like, you know, Bob mentioned, we have a very limited time here.

We, we are like, no time. We'll try our best to take all the questions that you have. But in case, like, you know, you don't get a chance to like, you know, ask a question, you can always email us out. Bob can you please write us down our emails, so that incase people want to reach back to us they can do that later. And like, feel free, as I mentioned, feel free to raise your questions. Like, you can always send us through chat messages. We are extremely sorry that we can't like, allow you to have your, all your rights there, because like, we have so many people here. We can't take audio questions from everyone. We are sorry. Like we are very limited time here. But yeah, being said, like, you know, feel free to ask questions. Like, you know, don't hesitate to interrupt through your check messages, or question windows, all right. 

As Bob mentioned, like, you know, there are like, so many tools in the industry. And like, you know, you never know which tool is the best tool for you. I used to use, I used to work on eQuest I. have worked on eQuest for almost like four or five years. And then, I switch to EnergyPlus and OpenStudio. And, I’ll be very honest with you, like, OpenStudio initially wasn't very powerful, like what it is right now. It has so many features. For example, like, it has a very nice interface, very user friendly. It allows you to do so many things. You can customize the tool as, this like, open source. Before I move further, like, you know, I just want to already ask one question to everyone. Like, given the experience in OpenStudio, any kind of experience. Have you ever opened the interface? Or, have you ever worked with EnergyPlus? You can just, like, send us a chat message or something, so that we know, like, you have some experience there. I can see some no’s and some yes here, which is pretty awesome. That's good. Just want to let you know that this is, again, this is like, one hour session. We won't be able to cover a lot of things. If you are interested in like, doing some online training with us, let me just pitch it. Like, you know, what we are planning to do in future. 

Bob and I, we are planning to start a fresh new OpenStudio series on like, the latest version of OpenStudio. You can look at this link. I'm just going to, like, copy this link in the chat message, as well, in case you are interested. Just look into it like, you know, you are doing a fresh new web series. You can see there like, different sessions that will start from next week. For example, the first session is all about 3D geometry. Third one is like, defined space property, and so on, all right. Please take some time and go through this page. All right, so, I won't waste more time for you guys here. Like, going to jump on what OpenStudio is all about. Like in, how is it better than eQuest. If you are an eQuest user and you're planning to jump on OpenStudio, well that's a very great use for you. That, this tool has amazing interface. You can actually create the geometry very easily compared to eQuest. I mean, if you remember eQuest, you catch each and every coordinate in that, like, you know, very crappy interface. 

You can't do more than just like, you know, a rectangular building or something. I mean, you can do it, but it's so difficult there. In a SketchUp interface, I'm sorry. In OpenStudio, the good thing is, they also have released a SketchUp plugin for you guys. If you are an architect or you know SketchUp, you can create a crazy geometry and run this relation on top of this. This is like, one of the very powerful features in OpenStudio. You need not to like, worry about creating like, you know, geometry, or simplify your geometry for eQuest. You can do whatever you want it OpenStudio. Good thing is, the OpenStudio plug-in. I would say scripts for grasshopper, also allows you to create the lino energy model. I'm not going to cover that part in this class, but I'm just going to show you, how can you create geometry in SketchUp. And later, we move to OpenStudio interface. Try to run a simulation, and then go through the results, all right. Let me just see if I have, if I have some questions to answer, like, you know, all right. Like, you know, I have some, like, you know, feedback here, so it's fine. 

Let's move to the next slide. I'm not going to cover a lot of theory here, just going to like give you brief introduction here. Again, this is my, like, email ID. This is my personal email ID. This training is not related to or associated with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, my company. I'm working with Bob, specifically, on this training program. Please send me any questions on my personal ID, or the email ID that Bob has provided, all right. Before I jump on SketchUp, I'm going to give you a brief introduction of SketchUp plug-in workflow here. Basically, like, we are going to start creating a geometry, like, that's the basic process for each and every energy modeling software. I'm going to tell you, like, what is a script in OpenStudio later. But, like, you know, the first option, or the first bullet point here is, you run a script to create the space type and construction set wizard. I'll explain him later. The second thing is, create geometry for spaces, then assign properties via space types. Assigned day-lighting controls that need to be. Assign shading and controls, the adjacent building, or trees, or like, your windows shapes, or something. You can totally do that in SketchUp plugin. Assign thermal zones. Where you gonna like, install the HVAC systems, or provide the thermostat settings. Defining digital properties, and later jump to OpenStudio interface, all right. 

I got some questions. Let me just go through them. And, I'm really sorry, like, if I'm running fast because, we have limited time. Just going to cover like, whatever I can hear, okay. And like, I'm getting some questions. Say, will they be slideshow available for you guys. Yes, if you write at us down, to Bob or me, we will just provide you, we are not planning to like, you know, upload it somewhere. Unless, like, Bob has some other plans. Bob, can you please give some, like, clarity here. Are we planning to upload it somewhere? I think, most probably, we will like, you know, make it available for you guys, all right. Like, without like, wasting more time here, I'm just going to jump on the SketchUp plug-in here. If you are unfamiliar with the SketchUp interface, that's how it looks like. I have those SketchUp tools. When you install OpenStudio, you will see all those OpenStudio toolbars, as well. You can see like, you know, there are so many functions. Create space, create shading controls, so many of things. I don't think we have time to go through each and every one of them. But like, I'll try to cover most of them, if possible, okay. 

The first step that I mentioned was to run the script to bring space types in construction set wizard. And, what is that? In eQuest, generally, when you need to create an ASHRAE compliance model. Something like, let's say, ASHRAE 9.1 2010 baseline model. Most probably, you will end up doing, like, you know, providing all the inputs manually. But, in OpenStudio, you can actually bring all those inputs directly in your model, by just clicking some buttons. How do you do that? When I, when I click on this new OpenStudio model from wizard, on left hand side, top. If I click on it, it must ask me, would you like to save your current OpenStudio model. Since I don't have anything in my OpenStudio model, I'm just going to click, no. And then, it will like, bring a new user input window for me. What it asks me that, hey, what is your building type? Well, it has multiple options based on reference buildings. You can see, like, hospital, large hotels, mid-rise apartment, office, small hotel, strip mall. 

What happens if I select like, let's say, office. And then, I select template equal to ASHRAE 90.1 2010. And, climate zone, let's say, so, just one question for you guys. What is the climate zone for New York? Anyone? Any feedback? Just know, like, you know, if you guys are paying some attention here. Anyone, what is climate zone for New York City, all right. Make sense, okay. Like, a lot of people have different opening here. Well, right one is like 4A, so, I’m going to provide like, 4A here. Climate zone 4A. What I did here, I actually asked my system, or my interface to bring the template, or properties for an office building for template ASHRAE 90.1 2010 compliance, from climate zone 4A. What will it do now, it will bring the insulation properties, the envelope properties for an, for a 4A climate, as per 90.1 2010. It will bring you the lighting power density and all the related properties based on the building type that you selected, the template is selected, and the climate zone you selected. 

Envelope is based on the climate zone. While the properties, something like, internal gains, lighting power density, everything, they are related on the building type. For example, for office building, the lighting power density is somewhere on 0.98 watt per square foot for ASHRAE 90.1 2010 compliance. It is not dependent on climate zone, okay. But, still we need to provide all these properties. If I click OK. There is one question here from [inaudible 13:44], that, hey what, what to select for the climate zone of India. Well, actually, if you go to ASHRAE 90.1 2010 booklet, or like, you know, the compliance report, what do you call that, the, yeah, manual. You will see there is a chapter there where they tell you that, hey, like, these are like, specific cities all over the world. And, you can select that particular climate zone. 

I don't remember exactly the name of that chapter but if you go through each and every page, or at least the initial, like, you know, block pages, you'll understand. Like, you know what, what I'm talking about here, okay. There's one more question here. Lighting is based on bending time rather than a space by space? Well, actually it is related to space by space. And I am going to explain to you later, like, in next space on this. Like, you'll understand what I am trying to talk about. When I selected a building type as office, it brought me like, 13 space types. What, like, somebody asked me question here. And one construction set based on the climate zone that I have selected. I'm going to click OK here. And then, it tells me that, hey, like, if you want to bring some more space types, you can totally do that. Like, it allows you to create the mixed-use building, as well. 

Let me just show you real quick. Sorry, where is that. You can see if I click on this option, like, space type in construction set wizard, it allows me to bring more space types, like, you know, I can like, have one mixed-use building. I can bring it for, let's say, maybe for mid-rise apartment or something. They, there are like more additional features. Like, for your use, like, you need not worry about like, bringing more additional properties or something. You can just download them by one click, okay. I'm going to show you how these space type properties look like. I'm just going to click on the inspector tool. And now, you can see in my in my OpenStudio resources. I have 13 space types for an office building. The like, associated space types can be something like, break room, closed office, conferences, corridor, electrical/mechanical room, and so on. 

For example, if I have a break room, or let's say conference room in my project. It has all the associated internal gain properties for a conference room, based on ASHRAE 90.1 2010, I need not to go through each and every space, the conference space, and assign the properties. I can just like, you know, like, reduce my workload by using this method. Very helpful compared to the other software. That's the number two benefit of using OpenStudio, guys. It reduces your workload significantly. I’ll let you know like, one secret of mine. Like, you know, when I was working on eQuest, I used to spend almost like, you know, 5,200 hours to create a, an ASHRAE baseline model. Like, you know, for a very small office building of maybe, 50,000 square feet. But, I'm not, I'm not joking around here. I can do it in like, 20 to 30 hours, like 20-30 hours. Reduced my workload by more than 50%. It's very significant, all right. And then, I have a construction set that based on the climate zone then I have selected. My climate zone was 4A. It has like, properties for roof, wall, windows, everything based on the climate zone and the template that I've selected here, all right. 

I need not to create all those property, like what we used to do in eQuest. I just have all the insulation properties directly available in my interface right now, okay. Before I move further, I have some more questions. Wow, we have like significant amount of attendees, looks like. That's fine for now, like Bob, if you are there, please like, let me know if I need to take care of some of the questions here. 

No, no. I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to handle the questions that I can so you can keep presenting. Thank you. 

Awesome. Thanks so much Bob. Guys, I'm going to start on this energy model. We are going to create an energy model from scratch to finish. Like, a very small building. And, I'll show you the capabilities, or the strength of this tool over eQuest, or any other tool. Like, I, I have worked on DesignBuilder and IES as well, but like, the amount of money that you pay for those software. One says like, free software, like, this OpenStudio is incredible. This software can do whatever those other software’s can do. Please give it a try. And, like, you know, you'll be like, very happy with this, in case you don't have any experience with this, okay. Okay. Look, before I move further, like, I want to explain the strength or the feature number three here. 

A lot of people, like, they really want to move to OpenStudio, I'm sorry to EnergyPlus from eQuest. But, the thing is they're very scared of it's, like, you know, like, crappy interface. It has that Excel based, Microsoft Excel based interface, which is not user friendly. You need to jump from one screen to another screen. And, you don't know where the connections are. You don't know how this property, the lighting power density, is connected with this space. But, the good thing is, OpenStudio reduces that stress for you. It brings all the properties, inputs, outputs, under one umbrella, under one interface, which is like, very user friendly. This is like powerful feature number three, all right. 

Now, I'm going to explain to you the most powerful feature, which I already talked about. How can you create the geometry in SketchUp. If you aren’t, are you a SketchUp user by the way? Like, do you guys have any experience with SketchUp? Like, you know, any feedback here. Like, you know, so that I'll see like, you know, how many attendees in my list here know like, what I'm talking about, anyone. I can see a lot of yes and no. Like, majority of people are like, you know, are a user of OpenStudio, or, SketchUp, that's awesome. I can see one more questions here. Is OpenStudio development funded by US government? It is funded by the Department of Energy, NREL, PNN, different federal left's are, like, doing a lot of research. You can actually go on their website. I can just show you like, you know, OpenStudio.net. 

You can just go through this page here. There's so much information, documentation, downloads, in case you are a developer and you want to create your own interface. Like, you can actually download all the APK documentation. I can show you here, unless, I mean, you can see this. Everything is on GitHub. You can just download this here, and you can bring, or you can create your own interface based on your, like, priorities. What you want to do with your tool. Do you have like, any additional features that you want to bring. Yes, you can totally do that. And, that's the powerful feature number four, okay. Very helpful, please go through this. It's like highly funded, like, you know, the Department of Energy is throwing a lot of money on its turbo print. And, if you see like it has 107 releases. Like, they actually release, like, you know, their versions after every like, two weeks, or three weeks, something like that. 

For example, you can see this was released May 2. Before that goes March 30. They're like, they're so many of them. Like, you know, they are constantly working on this. It is highly updated compared to eQuest. I think that last eQuest version was released, maybe like, a couple of years back. But this new OpenStudio, it has all the important features that you want. Like, everything is brand-new here, okay. Looks like he has so many questions, all right. Can like, you know, thanks a lot for your feedback. I'll go ahead and do, I know what I'm doing, thanks a lot for your feedback. I'm going to start from a very simple energy model here, like in a very simple office. How I like to do it, like, I like to click on the ground floor. And like, you know, like, if you are familiar with SketchUp tools, you just need to use your tools like, you know, the way you do for an architecture model. For example, if I like, I give some dimensions, something like, let's say, 30 feet by 60 feet. 

Let's say, like, you know, I'm going to work on this floor plan. I'm just going to create some, like, you know, sections here. Like, you know, one corridor, real quick. I'm not looking at the dimensions, just creating something real quick for you guys, and yeah. Let's assume that this is our building. Like, you know, it has like, a couple of open spaces. One conference room, maybe, one restroom, one corridor, okay. And, the same footprint will be followed, like, you know, will be followed up on the second floor, as well. Now, what can I do here? I can just like, you know, after once I'm done with creating my footprint, I can select this floor plan. Click on one of the scripts here. Like this one, create spaces from diagram. 

Before I click on this, I want to explain to you the meaning of scripts, or like OpenStudio measures in OpenStudio. Well, you know, if you don't know about this, OpenStudio is made up by Ruby and C++. Unlike eQuest, in OpenStudio, you can run these tiny scripts, or programs to reduce your workload. For example, like, in eQuest, you can't just create this floor path, floor plan such, like in such an easy manner, and bring the 3D geometry out of it. But, in OpenStudio, you can totally do that. I'm going to explain to you more features of these OpenStudio scripts. But, let’s start with this, the first one, the create spaces from diagram. I already have spaces are here. I'm just going to click on this script, and it will ask me that, hey, what is the floor height that you want. Let's say per feet and number of floors, maybe 2 and hit you, okay, all right. You can see like, I have 3D geometry here, okay. Well, it doesn't look very, like, proportionate. But, it's all right for now. And, the next thing that I want to do is maybe bring a window, or bring the properties, the internal gain properties. Before I move further, I also want to, like, do the surface matching here. 

What is surface matching? Well, in OpenStudio, when you create these spaces, OpenStudio thinks that all these spaces there, are all the envelopes, surfaces, they are outside property. They are outside properties. They have air exposure, and sun exposure. Well, then you have to make those corrections manually. Either you can select each and every wall, and change the properties in this inspector tool. For example, you can see, this particular wall has outside boundary conditions. It has sun exposure, wind exposure. It means that, when you run this simulation, they will act as outdoor boundaries. And, these thermo dynamics that will happen through this surface will act as for that. You want to definitely change the properties. You want to make them either adiabatic walls, or the internal walls

Well, OpenStudio has provided a new script for you. Like, you know, you can just like, click on one option, which is this, surface matching options, and it will change all the properties for you automatically. What I'm going to do, I am just going to click on, intersecting in entire model, and then match in entire model. That's it guys. I'm done with this. And, now if I look at the property of this wall, you can see it's been changed. It has no sun exposure, no wind exposure, and is it is next to the, some other interior wall, okay. Again, like, you know, very important feature here. This is one of the script that I was talking about. And after this, I can provide the window wall ratio. 

Again, there are different ways to do it. Either I can select some particular spaces, like this, like, you know, by using your laptop. And then, go to this, OpenStudio user script manual, again. And then, look for this option, which is, set window to wall ratio. If I click on this, it can allow me to provide the window wall ratio, which will, let's say, like, 0.6. How much offset you want from floor, maybe like, 1 meter, and click OK. You can see, for those selected spaces, I have window wall ratio equal to 60 percent. Or else, I can select, complete project, like this, by using your mouse. And then, provide the window wall ratio, let's say, like maybe, 0.8, yep, okay. And, you can see, everything is like, it's a glass box now. Again, very important feature. Or, you can do it manually, like you can just select like, one space. You can bring more windows if you want, like this, using your SketchUp tools. And, maybe you can provide some skylight, as well, okay, so easy. 

If you want to make some changes in your spaces, you can do. You do that by using your SketchUp tools, like, extrude this space, like this. Or, maybe like, to make some more changes in your spaces, I can make one more intersection here. And, maybe most, make more tiers, like this, so easy guys. And, if I, if you want to get crazy here, you can totally do, do that. Let me just, like, you know, show some more changes here, so that you know the power of this tool. That didn’t go well. But yeah, something like this, okay. Again, like, you know, job idea is to let you guys know that this tool is very powerful. In eQuest, you can't do like, new changes in your building geometry, like this. It is so easy, like, you know, we are, we are using the SketchUp tools, but the changes are happening in OpenStudio energy model. And, before I move further, I can see like, some more questions here. There's so many of them guys. I'm sorry, like, you know, I can't go through each of them. Like, either Bob will go through them, or like, you know, I'll reply you back to emails later, okay. 

Guys, like, you know, you can get crazy here if you want. You can make more changes. You can easily create a skylight. Again, that's a very important feature, guys. Like, you know, in OpenStudio, it allows you to create your geometries easily, okay. All right, I'm going to work with this geometry now. What I'm going to do is, like, you know, I'm going to provide the thermal zones here. And, before I move further, I want to ask a question. With us, like, you know, what is the difference between the space and a thermal zone? Can you please explain to me, any, just take a shot. If you don't know it, it's fine. Take a shot, anyone. All right, I got some feedback here. Yes, thermal zone is controlled by thermostat, okay. That's like, you know, half correct. Let me explain to you, spaces is something like, where you have internal loads, or something related to your envelope. 

For example, right now these spaces, they have, like, you know, envelope properties. For example, if I am talking about this particular space, it has six surfaces. Ground, roof, four walls, and it can have internal loads. Something like, lighting power density, the plug load density, people's density, or occupancy. But, it doesn't have a thermostat or any HVAC system associated with it. In OpenStudio, you need to assign a thermal zone, to assign a HVAC system, and thermal style to your spaces. It's something like, what you also have in eQuest. If you remember, like, eQuest interface. In one screen, you have all these spaces where you provide the property. Something like, lighting power density, envelope, plug load density, and so on. While, if you move to the next screen, you have like, property is something like, associated HVAC systems, and so on. The same thing in OpenStudio. Once you are done with creating your space types, and like, you know, providing the properties to it, which we haven't yet, you can assign in thermal zones. 

What I will do here, I just like, you know, go on here. Let me just show you how many spaces are here for now. We have 14 spaces right now, 93 surfaces. If you have some kind of OCD, like me, like, you know, I always like to, like, you know, rename them properly. Something like, hey, first floor underscore office north. Something like this. Why I like to do that, for, so that later, in case I need to do some kind of quality check, I know in which space I am working. There's so many things there guys. Like, you know, there are 93 surfaces, 26 sub-surfaces. Like, you know, having these kind of a generic names won't make life easier, in case you need to do QC later. Please guys, like, you know, when you are working on this tool, or even on eQuest, or any, any other energy tool, like, you know, it's a very good practice to rename your important components. Like the way you want, okay. That's all I like to do. First floor underscore office underscore north. I know which floor that I'm working on, and which space that I'm working on, okay. 

Now, I have like, I have 14 spaces. What I'm going to do I'm going to select each and every space in my model. And then, another script here, which is like, add new thermal zones for spaces with no thermal zone, okay. This is a new script. Click on it, okay. And now, if you see, go back to like, you know, inspector tool. You can see 14 thermal zones here. Again, you can see they're very generic name. I like to run another script here, which is, rename thermal zones based on space names, boom. And, what happens now, I mean, now you can see my thermal zones have exact name, one I am given for my spaces. Now I know that, for this thermal zone, like, you know, where do I need to go for, in case I need to make some changes in internal gain. This thermal zone is connected to the first floor office underscore N. And, that's why I need to go, in case I need to make some changes, to fix my Unmet load hours, or anything, okay. That's the benefit of renaming, all right. Let me see, we'll go through the questions, if there are some important questions? 

Oh, again, Bart, like, you know, like, software assigns these default space numbers based on the scripts that they have provided. Like, you know, it's a detail version. Like, you know, I mean, we can talk about it later, but, like, you know, this is how like, script works, okay. Once I'm done with thermal zones, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to assign the space type properties to these geometries. Right now, they're just geometry. I mean, for example, you don't know what kind of space is this. Is it a restroom, or is it a conference room, or what. Now, I'm going to assign all those properties here, using this another important tool here, which is, set attributes for selected spaces. You can see, if you select any space, you can assign properties like, space types, building story, construction set, thermal zones, ideal air loads, and thermostat, all right. 

Like, I have one more question for you guys, can you please explain to me what is an ideal air load here. Like, you know, any, take a shot, it's fine, nobody's going to judge you if you're wrong. Please take a shot, it's very important here. Meanwhile, while you take a shot, I'll just like, you know, explain some more things. I'm waiting for your answers, guys. But, like, you know, meanwhile, like, you know, you can see something wrong happened here. Like, you know, when I created those windows, I did some mistake. Maybe I didn't click on these spaces properly, and that's why these sub-surfaces are white in color. It shouldn't be like this. In OpenStudio plug-in, that's how windows look like, or this transparent blue. That's how the walls look like, orangish. And, that's how the roof looks like. If you see these kind of like, white patches, or something, something is wrong. I'm just going to fix it. Like, you know, just double-click on spaces, and try to delete them. Otherwise, it won't allow you to run the energy model, okay. And, I'm just going to fix it, as well, all right. Again, like, you know, it's very easy to fix the glitches, or like, errors in OpenStudio. Again, very important feature, okay. 

Like, you know, you can just use your OpenStudio tools, or like, SketchUp tools here, and they'll fix things for you easily, okay. I'm just going to delete this space, because it's creating some trouble here for me. I know something is wrong with, like, these spaces. Well, I'm going to do, I'm just going to delete them for now, and just make things easier for us, okay. I'm just looking for some feedback on ideal air load. Some people replied and looks like most of them are right. Well in ideal air load, there are three things. The efficiency is always 100%. A lot of times you install boilers, something like, hey, you can only see boiler is 92% efficient. Or, maybe a simple boiler is 100% efficient. A chiller with COP is, it’s like, more than 100% efficient. In ideal air load situation, consider it as a district plan, it is always 100% efficient, it is always available. A lot of times, like, you can, like, switch off your boiler during months off, like, you know, summer. Like, something like, from May to August. It means the boiler is not available for heat. But, if we install an ideal air load in your spaces, it means your system is available, always. And, third thing, it is, it has infinite capacity. Three things when you install an ideal air load, you have infinite capacity, 100% efficiency, and it is always available. 

When I install the ideal air load in a space, let's say, I'm just going to, like, select some of these spaces here. And, like, select properties, install properties. Something like, let's say, I'm going to assign properties, like, something like, hey, let's say, these are open offices. We already have construction set in our project, just one. We need not worry about this, and then, I'm going to assign the ideal air load status here. And, maybe, providing thermal, thermostat, let's say, for OpenOffice. These thermostat properties are based on ASHRAE newer reference buildings. Like, you know, they give you very generic properties based on newer reference buildings. You can easily change them. Again, whatever properties that we are providing here, they're easily, like, you know, switchable. You can totally make the changes in that later. Don't worry about them. Like, you know, I can see some questions that say, like, hey, are these properties, can you change them later? Yes, you can totally do that. 

This software has, like, you know, amazing capabilities. Like, you know, like, options are always available, okay. Now, I have install the ideal air load status in these spaces. Now, these spaces have infinite capacity for its HVAC systems, heating and cooling, hundred, like, all this available, and 100% efficiency. Why you need to install this ideal air load. Well, a lot of times you just need to do some, like, internal load calculations. This base load calculation. Something, what, like, people have done in, like, people used to do it in trace, or like, other tools. You will need not to like, go through those crazy MEP details to like, bring all these space load calculations. You can just like, install this ideal air load, and it will bring you all the information. Something that space load, and based on that, you can like, you know, size your system, the MEP system, and so many other things, all right. 

That's the other benefit here. And now, I'm going to hit OK. And, for this sake, like, because we are really limited on time, I'm just going to install, like, you know, the same space type to each and every space for now. Ideal air loads, and maybe just give like, thermostat as open office. But, like, in like, in the real model, you have to go through each and every space. You can like, select multiple spaces, and provide the space types based on that. There are different kinds of space types. As you know, so, like, you know, feel free to use all those options and at least explore them, okay. 

Now, what I can do, I can just, like, save this model. And, either I can move to OpenStudio interface. I'm just going to save it first, like maybe on desktop. Just going to create something real quick here, save it. Maybe give it a name. Let's, I can give today’s date here, and save it. Now, what if, if you had some day lighting controls in your spaces. You can totally install that. I'm just going to do it in one of these spaces. Like, one of these spaces, let's say, for this. I'm just going to hide the, the roof here, because, it makes my life easier, in case I need to drop the day lighting control. You can see here, on this OpenStudio tool bar, there is a tool here, new day lighting control. Well, I just need to click it, and drop it in the space. Well, it, actually it went in, like the other space. But, let me just change the properties for this day lighting control in the inspector tool. Like, you know, it is, it went in some other space. Looks like the position Z coordinate is in minus, I don't know why. I'm just going to make it like, plus, and close it. Now, it's here. You can bring it next to a wall. And, like, depends, like, how your system is. Like, design, I'm just going to keep it like this. Just want to let you guys know that there like, so many additional features here in this OpenStudio SketchUp interface. I'm just going to unhide everything, so that might roof is still there, and come out of my space. 

You can see, I have one like, day lighting control here. Like, I can change the properties easily for this day lighting control. You can rename this day lighting control, if you want. This is my day lighting control here. You can change the coordinates, the position of the day lighting control, or you can change the properties. You want a continuous control type, or some other kind of day lighting control. There's so many properties, please explore. We don't have enough time for this, but yeah. Definitely feel free to reach us back in case you have any questions. And, one more thing that I want to explain here is, like, how to implement some shading controls in your spaces. Like, you know, there are a couple of easier ways to do it. Like, you know, either I can just select all these spaces, and use another script, which reduces my workload significantly. The script is, add overhangs by projection factor. Like, let's say, projection factor can be something like, 0.3 of total height, and hit OK. And, you can see, like, you know, I mean, I, I think I selected some spaces there, like some particular. And, that’s where I got those shading device controls, or devices. But, I can do it manually. I can just like, use OpenStudio tools here, like, you know, it's something. And, like, you know, install it over the windows. I know I'm doing it very fast here. But, like, you know, you got the idea how to do it, okay.

Let me just work on my, so they're, they're different ways really. You can just use your SketchUp toolbar. I like to use these scripts because it makes my life much easier. You can see, it took me maybe, like, milliseconds to create these shading geometries, so easy. In case you had any adjacent and buildings that you want to bring in your energy model, you can totally do that. There is one more tool here, new shading surface group. Click on it, and double-click in this space. Like, bring the geometry, and you can see this is my adjacent building. And, you can see it has totally different properties, like, you know, different color coding. You know that this is the shading device, there is a, like, you can see that difference between the colors, like, properties. If you go to inspector tool, you'll see your shading devices there, like, shading. Let me just go through the shading devices. Is that, I will see it, okay. It should be in some surface somewhere here, in these, okay. You can change the properties in the SketchUp interface easily. 

Or, the next thing, what you can do is, move to OpenStudio interface, which, that's what we do now. Once I'm done with my SketchUp interface, I'm just going to click on this, save OpenStudio model tab, or tool, close down this screen. Or, either you can just keep it open, and open the OpenStudio main interface. If you haven't looked at this interface ever, that's how it looks like, very easy. As like, all other tools, you always start from the top tab, and then you keep finishing all the inputs through each and every tab. For example, the first one is site. Let me just open my saved model first. It’s on my desktop, so, I'm just going to open the same model. In the first step, you can see, you need to provide the weather file and design days, which I am going to do it now. Set weather file, it should be on my C Drive somewhere. I can just bring EnergyPlus files. Again, like, you know, if you're not familiar with, like, you know, what kind of energy. I'm sorry, what kind of weather files that you need to use, you can always just, google it. Energy Plus, weather file. And, it will bring you to the EnergyPlus website. It has like weather data for like, you know, different continents. 

For example, if you click on North and Central America, and then US, you have a file for almost each and every state. And, almost all the important locations. We work on like, multiple, like, international projects, almost every day. And, this website is very handy. The data is free of cost, it's amazing, okay. You can always download it. I don't know if you looked at my chat messages, but in case you have any problem in the EnergyPlus documentation, in case you need to read through them, you can just use this link here. I'm just going to copy and paste for you guys here, in chat messages, for everyone, and yeah. That's very helpful here, okay. Once you are done with, like, providing the weather file, let's say, like, we use for San Francisco. You also need to provide the design date file, which you don't do in eQuest, okay. 

Before I ask any question like, you know, do you have any, like, you know, any feedback for me. Or, like, you want to explain some other things in SketchUp interface, anyone. If no, let me explain to you what a design day file is. Well, when you auto size your MEP systems, HVAC systems, you have to provide a design day weather file. Either you can hard size your systems, provide a capacity of, let's say, 100,000 KBT’s per hour boiler, or something. Or you can ask your software to do the auto sizing for you. And, that's what you do for your ASHRAE 90.1 to base models. In case you need to do auto sizing, you just need to provide the design day file, click on it. In case you want to read more of them, you can just go back to the EnergyPlus documentation, and look into it. It gives you more information. And, the next one is like, you know, the schedules. If I click on it, it has all those schedules. 

If you remember, based on the template and the building tab that we generated on the step one. Again, these are very like, you know, general schedule sets, based on ASHRAE reference buildings. You can easily change them. We don't have enough time to show you here, like, how can we change. But, it's very easy. Like, you can just see like, the hour, like, the schedule is from 0 to 24. Which means 12 a.m. to 12 a.m. The frequency, or the properties, are something like 0.4 from 0 to 8 a.m. Then, it suddenly goes up to like, 90%, when people start reaching to their offices, then during a lunch break the frequency goes down, and so on, okay. It's very easy, like, very user-friendly. You just need to use your mouse, or you can just provide the value slightly for your, from your keyboard, super friendly, okay. 

The next one is, construction set. We brought only one construction set based on 90.1 2010, for climate zone 4A. And, it has all the properties guys. Walls, floors, roofs, everything, so, very important. In case I need to make changes, I can just go here and make the changes, in like, let's say, thickness, density connectivity, and all changes will be there for you, okay. Then, they are like, you know, loads, internal gains, and everything. You can make changes there. Like, all the properties are based on ASHRAE 90.1, as I mentioned, and so on. And, because we have very limited time, like, we have only 15 minutes left now. I’m just going to install the HVAC system here. I’m just going to jump on HVAC system. I tab here, and then there are a couple of ways to like, create the HVAC systems. Either you can create these templates based on ASHRAE 90.1, appendix G, or, those options, something like packaged roof unit, packaged roof heat pump and all, or VAV. 

When I click on these, it brings all the associated properties for you based on appendix G. Or, you can actually use another very important feature here, which is using the OpenStudio measures. If I do create a HVAC system manually, it can take me like hours. Really, like, you know, creating air loops, creating solar equipment, providing thermostat settings, client loops, chillers, pumps, tweak the properties, so many things, right. I mean, if you are an energy model, you know how much time does it take. But, I can show you very important OpenStudio feature here. You can run another, like, new script here, in this main OpenStudio interface. Click on these components and measures, apply measure now, save your energy model. And, it will take some time, like, you know. And then, it brings me a list of all the OpenStudio measures that I have. How can you download them. These measures, you can get it for free from NREL’s website. If you go to BCL NREL, which is like a building component library, and go to like, you know, their main interface. 

They have free, 256 measures for you guys. Like, you know, there's so many measures. I mean, I don't have. I don't want to go through each and every, but like, for example, in HVAC systems, you have so many of them. Like, you know, something like, hey, some, create something like, VRFwithDOAS, fan coil unit system, replace HVAC with water source heat pumps, and so on. Imagine, if you have a system, something like, you know, DOAS with fan coil unit system, it can take you almost half a day, or, one day to create it. But, you can just run this script, and it will reduce your workload significantly. Also, from NREL, you can download different components. Something like, different kind of VR systems. You can see there are like, different HVAC systems, directly from the manufactures. The manufacturers, they provide you all the properties for their systems. Let me just click on something before we move further. Maybe, let's say, no units. 

You can see, these LG electronic units, they have all the properties based on the manufacturers. You need not to contact your manufacturers of your systems to bring all the properties, which is a huge headache for me, as well. You need to download the specs, and provide all those inputs in your model. You can reduce that, like, workload, by just downloading all the properties directly from NREL’s building component library. That's what we are going to do now. I got some more feedback, okay. I'm just going to run a HVAC measure here. Which will be like, something like, let's say, VRFwithDOAS. Okay, that’s fine. Maybe like, you know, let's keep it simple for now. Back at single zone heat pump to each zone, I do that, you can just tweak the properties, okay any existing HVAC equiptment. COP for cooling. I'm just going to make it 4, COP for heating, 4. 

These are very like, you know, minimalistic property changes that you can do it OpenStudio measure. But, you can make more changes later. And, I'll show you this once we are done with this measure thing. Enable demand controlled ventilation, maybe yes. Want to select the fan type, maybe, let's say, variable volume. Fan pressure rise, I don't know, I'm not good with these, like, you know, values. I'm just going to give, like, just going to keep, keep it blank, so that it makes default properties. You want to choose the affected zones by, like, you know, space. It's fine, I'm just going to bring, like, space types. Which space type, we have only one space type for now. Open office, and standard open office. Apply measure now, it will, like, you know, run this script for me. But, it takes some time, like, maybe like, 30 seconds or something. It will create all the rooms for you, all the thermal units for you. It will do so much work for you in milliseconds. It is doing all the calculations. It is, like, you know, running this script. 

I mean, while I can take some more questions here. Oh my god, there's so many of them. I, I don't think I can take all of them, I can see a huge list. What we can do, we can just try to reach back to you through email or something. Or, I think Bob is already taking care of them. You can see, like, you know, the initial condition here. What it means. When you see this screen, first of all, it means measure work for you. The initial condition was, that you had zero air loops, zero chiller plant and zero condenser. Your final condition is, there are 14 zones for which a PSZ-HP system, with, this much COP. There are 14 air loops, now have demand controlled ventilation enabled. Accept changes. And, because we created like the zonal thermal units, you won't see any, like, plant loops here. Or, actually, yeah. If you go to thermal zones here, you can see each every space have like, zonal increments, which is like, back to single zone heat pumps. If you want to make changes in the properties, if you want to define them later, you can just go back to those air loops here. Click on them. You can see this, like, air loop. It has this cooling single speed DX coil, which you can, like, you know, create later. You have one DX single speed heating coil, then electric coil, fan. You have some like, you know, set point controls. And then, you have these spaces, like, you know, this is like, thermal zone, space 107. 

It looks like, you know, we have HVAC systems, we have internal gains. We are ready to run the simulation, okay. Again, as I mentioned, we won't be able to show you each and every feature here. I'm really sorry about this, but you can always reach back to us with questions, inqueries, and we'll try to help us, help you out. For now, I'm just going to run this simulation here. Just like, you know, go to the little second last tab. To reach here, you should go through each and every tab here. Please download this software. Please play around with this. If you are an EnergyPlus or eQuest user. Mostly you will understand like, what this software is trying to communicate with you. You'll be fine, trust me, okay. Once you are like, like, you know, fine with each and every tab, just, on this simulation. 

It might give me some errors because I have like skylights. And, in OpenStudio it doesn't bring you properties for skylight, it will definitely crash on me. I already clicked run. I don't want to stop it in between, it's just going to crash in, maybe like next five or ten seconds, I'll be fine. It crashed on me, I knew it. I'm just going to provide the properties for my, in my construction set. I need to provide properties for my, what is that, skylight. You can see there's nothing in here, that's why it crashed on me. What I'm going to do, I'm just going to provide, like, you know, some properties here, to just run the simulation. Maybe like, exterior window for now. And then, run the simulation one more time. I hope it works this time. 

And, meanwhile I can look into some questions. I can see, like, a lot of people are asking for like, webinars or something. Well, I'm going to share a link with you guys. Like, meanwhile, like, you know, it will be uploaded there. As I mentioned initially through my chat windows, Bob and I we are planning to create a new fresh web series for OpenStudio. I'm going to give you the link here. And, like, you know, it will have this recording, as well as, all the like, you know, features, all the coming webinars. Meanwhile I will take care of this, this, this problem here. Like, you know, can you please talk more on this simulate energy thing. 

Yeah, we have a lot of questions, so I’ve been distracted here. But, yeah, after speaking with Harshul and learning so much that I didn't know about OpenStudio. Even after I've completed a few models within the OpenStudio interface. I realized that our existing training, I knew that was to get people started in a step-by-step completion model, we have that on energymodels.com. But, to adequately provide a more modern, and time released program, we started a new website at simulate.energy. And, Harshul and I will be working on creating live courses, where we have more time, so we don't have to rush and encounter certain bugs. Such as this, this happens pretty much any time you present anything live where the simulation will crash. We'll have longer time periods. And, hopefully edit the videos when we post them, so they'll be both live and posted at simulate.energy. 

We are also starting a blog there, and Harshul, in addition to just teaching on OpenStudio, has made a number of measures. He's made them for NREL, I believe, and he makes them for his personal use, so that he can is time simulating, building a model, in half. Including troubleshooting and creating lead baseline building automatically. He's an unbelievable source of information. And, this is coming from myself, who uses several software packages. And, I, I have to say that, that I actually need him as teacher, as well. For what it's worth, Harshul, I hear your mouse clicking, so I take it he's still working on that. 

Yeah Guys. Yeah, so guys, think like, you know, because I made so many changes and it happens as, as Bob mentioned. What I'm going to do I'm just going to run something really quick for you guys. I need more time like then like, five minutes, or three minutes, to fix these things. When you like, work online in front of people, you make so many changes. You bring like, additional things just to demonstrate and sometimes, like, you know, like, you know, model, or your energy model doesn't like it. Very sorry about this, but like, you know, it's crashing on me again. But, like, you know, it's like, it's a bummer. Like, you know, I need more time to fix, as I mentioned. But, like, you know, it works really. There are like, so many ways to troubleshoot. You can see like, you know, it's missing some like, controls also, something like, you know, it needs more attention than what I have given here. Like, you know, and we have only one minute left. Wish we had more time to show you how to troubleshoot, but, like, you know, I mean, I can explain to you here. Like, you know, you just go to the last, last results summary. It has like, the same kind of interface for results. What you see for energy colors. 

Also, like, OpenStudio allows you to create your own customized report. Like, you know, you have all the OpenStudio related results. Something like, your properties, like, input properties, your outputs, your energy consumption, your peak demands, everything. Very nice detailed layout. Guys, like, you know, we have only one more minute left, so, like, you know. Again, please feel free to like, use this tool. Like, you know, at least give it a shot. If you have any error or something, don't hesitate to contact us we'll like try to help you out as much as we can. And again, like, as Bob mentioned, we are doing a fresh series. We will go through each and every property in detail. Don't hesitate to contact us. Or, like, me or Bob, in case you need more information for the tool or coming web series. I think that's it from my side, like, thanks a lot for joining me, guys. Like, again, don't hesitate to, like, reach back to us. We will be more than helpful, more than, like, you know, we will try to help you as much as we can. 

All right, yeah. Thank You, Harshul. I can close up here. Yes, we are doing a live series. And, to add some more students, I'll be sitting in on them. One thing that, when we present live, that's very difficult, that, unless you've ever done a webinar, is the number of distractions that you have. When there's a question that comes in, or hand pops up, and as you're simulating your attention to detail falls. And, that's where, sometimes we have an error in the simulation. When we, when we have a bit more time, and not so many people, that, that doesn't happen as often. I think that Harshul provides tremendous value, just not on the presentation side, but on some of the things that he can provide in terms of files. The last point I want to make is, I was, I was breaking a sweat answering questions here. And once I get them approved by Harshul, I hope to post them to the blog. Because, some of them were really great questions. And, I think I answered most of them accurately, but I will have to check the ones that are unanswered. And, also fact check a few things with Harshul. Thank you for attending, and we look forward to working with you in the future. 

Thanks a lot everyone. Take care, bye.