Adaptive Comfort Map

Compute spatially-resolved operative temperature and Adaptive thermal comfort from a Honeybee model.

This recipe uses EnergyPlus to obtain surface temperatures and indoor air temperatures + humidities. Outdoor air temperatures, relative humidities, and air speeds are taken directly from the EPW. The energy properties of the model geometry are what determine the outcome of the simulation, though the model's Radiance sensor grids are what determine where the comfort mapping occurs.

Longwave radiant temperatures are obtained by computing spherical view factors from each sensor to the Room surfaces of the model using Radiance. These view factors are then multiplied by the surface temperatures output by EnergyPlus to yield longwave MRT at each sensor. All indoor shades (eg. those representing furniture) are assumed to be at the room-average MRT.

A Radiance-based enhanced 2-phase method is used for all shortwave MRT calculations, which precisely represents direct sun by tracing a ray from each sensor to the solar position. To determine Thermal Comfort Percent (TCP), the occupancy schedules of the energy model are used. Any hour of the occupancy schedule that is 0.1 or greater will be considered occupied. All hours of the outdoors are considered occupied.

Inputs

  • model [Required]

A Honeybee Model for which adaptive comfort will be mapped. Note that this model should have radiance grids assigned to it in order to produce meaningful results.

  • epw [Required]

Path to an EPW weather file to be used for the comfort map simulation.

  • ddy [Required]

Path to a DDY file with design days to be used for the initial sizing calculation of the energy simulation.

  • north

A number between -360 and 360 for the counterclockwise difference between the North and the positive Y-axis in degrees. This can also be Vector for the direction to North. (Default: 0).

  • run_period

An AnalysisPeriod to set the start and end dates of the simulation. If None, the simulation will be annual.

  • add_str

THIS OPTION IS FOR ADVANCED USERS OF ENERGYPLUS. You can input additional text strings here to be appended to the IDF before energy simulation. The input should be complete EnergyPlus objects following the IDF format. This input can be used to write objects into the IDF that are not currently supported by Honeybee.

  • air_speed

A single number for air speed in m/s or an hourly data collection of air speeds that align with the input run_period_. This will be used for all indoor comfort evaluation. Note that the EPW wind speed will be used for any outdoor sensors. (Default: 0.1).

  • comfort_par

Optional comfort parameters from the "LB Adaptive Comfort Parameters" component to specify the criteria under which conditions are considered acceptable/comfortable. The default will use ASHRAE-55 adaptive comfort criteria.

  • solar_body_par

Optional solar body parameters from the "LB Solar Body Parameters" object to specify the properties of the human geometry assumed in the shortwave MRT calculation. The default assumes average skin/clothing absorptivity and a human subject always has their back to the sun at a 45-degree angle (SHARP = 135).

  • radiance_par

Text for the radiance parameters to be used for ray tracing. (Default: -ab 2 -ad 5000 -lw 2e-05).

  • run_settings

Settings from the "HB Recipe Settings" component that specify how the recipe should be run. This can also be a text string of recipe settings.

  • run [Required]

Set to True to run the recipe and get results. This input can also be the integer "2" to run the recipe silently.

Outputs

  • report

Reports, errors, warnings, etc.

  • env_conds

A folder containing CSV matrices with all of the environmental conditions that were input to the comfort model. These can be loaded into Grasshopper using the "HB Read Environment Matrix" component. This includes the following.

* MRT

* Air Temperature

* Longwave MRT

* Shortwave MRT Delta
  • op_temp

A folder containing CSV maps of Operative Temperature for each sensor grid at each time step of the analysis. This can be connected to the "HB Read Thermal Matrix" component to parse detailed results into Grasshopper. Values are in Celsius.

  • condition

A folder containing CSV maps of comfort conditions for each sensor grid at each time step of the analysis. This can be connected to the "HB Read Thermal Matrix" component to parse detailed results into Grasshopper. Values are as follows.

* -1 = unacceptably cold conditions

*  0 = neutral (comfortable) conditions

* +1 = unacceptably hot conditions
  • deg_neut

A folder containing CSV maps of the degrees Celsius from the adaptive comfort neutral temperature for each sensor grid at each time step of the analysis. This can be connected to the "HB Read Thermal Matrix" component to parse detailed results into Grasshopper. This can be used to understand not just whether conditions are acceptable but how uncomfortably hot or cold they are.

  • TCP

Lists of values between 0 and 100 for the Thermal Comfort Percent (TCP). These can be plugged into the "LB Spatial Heatmap" component along with meshes of the sensor grids to visualize spatial thermal comfort. TCP is the percentage of occupied time where thermal conditions are acceptable/comfortable. Occupied hours are determined from the occupancy schedules of each room (any time where the occupancy schedule is >= 0.1 will be considered occupied). Outdoor sensors are considered occupied at all times. More custom TCP studies can be done by post-processing the condition results.

  • HSP

Lists of values between 0 and 100 for the Heat Sensation Percent (HSP). These can be plugged into the "LB Spatial Heatmap" component along with meshes of the sensor grids to visualize uncomfortably hot locations. HSP is the percentage of occupied time where thermal conditions are hotter than what is considered acceptable/comfortable. Occupied hours are determined from the occupancy schedules of each room (any time where the occupancy schedule is >= 0.1 will be considered occupied). Outdoor sensors are considered occupied at all times. More custom HSP studies can be done by post-processing the condition results.

  • CSP

Lists of values between 0 and 100 for the Cold Sensation Percent (CSP). These can be plugged into the "LB Spatial Heatmap" component along with meshes of the sensor grids to visualize uncomfortably cold locations. CSP is the percentage of occupied time where thermal conditions are colder than what is considered acceptable/comfortable. Occupied hours are determined from the occupancy schedules of each room (any time where the occupancy schedule is >= 0.1 will be considered occupied). Outdoor sensors are considered occupied at all times. More custom CSP studies can be done by post-processing the condition results.

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