The Internal Condition and Calendar Databases

Both the Internal Condition and Calendar databases have been given a completely new Windows^TM interface. Both use the familiar ‘Explorer’ style interface with a tree view on the left and the edit/viewing pane on the right. The user can create as many folders and items as required. Manipulation of the database items and folders is easily accomplished via drag and drop. The new generation Calendar database stores exactly the same data as our existing database, but allows for as many Day Types as the user needs. However, the Internal Condition data structures have been extended and generalised to allow far greater flexibility in defining casual gains and plant control.

The introduction of Profile Types allows simple controls or gains to be created very quickly and applied across selected Day Types. But Profile Types also give the user scope to create variations that occur hour-by-hour through a day, or hour-by-hour through an entire year. There is even a general Function Profile Type that allows an input value to be prescribed from simulation values, e.g. control of aperture opening from simulated temperatures, or variation in lighting gain based on external solar values. This system of Profile Types and Schedules that is used in the Internal Condition database is also used within the building simulation software. In the simulation software the Profile Types allow the same mechanisms to be used to control Inter Zone Air Movement (IZAM), Substitute Building Elements and Aperture Opening. This gives a massive range of options to allow the simulation of very complex thermal and control systems within a building, yet only requiring that a single unified system has to be learnt by the user.

In this demo the building from the previous demos has simple Internal Conditions with Schedules applied to its zones and a full year is simulated. Offices have varying gains and plant based on different Day Types, which are displayed graphically over a number of days. A new Internal Condition, with infiltration only, is created and applied to the Attic zones of the model. The results of the simulation are displayed highlighting the temperatures and cooling loads for an office zone on a typical summer day (the filters and selections of the previous simulation having been retained). Finally the plant control for cooling is removed and the overshoot in temperature for the office is shown. This is in preparation for our next demo where automatic aperture opening will be used to simulate occupant control of the office windows in a natural ventilation simulation.