Merging Zones For SBEM and Thermal Mass

[wyliecoyote]

Hello All,

I've a query related to the merging of contiguous areas.

According to the user guide we can merge any spaces which have the same access to daylight, same activity, same HVAC and same lighting.

My original way to tackle this was to just have one zone to cover about twenty rooms but I then realised that the partition wall in between these rooms was of heavy construction so according to the user guide I need to take account of this.

I'm really just looking for clarification to see if my method is correct. Basically I was just going to draw in each individual room and specify the partition in between and "connect" them instead of just having them as one zone.

I'm trying to keep my model as simple as possible and avoid "connecting" and "merging" as I know how delicate SBEM can be.

My fear now is that the model will not run as it has a huge number of rooms(300+) and a lot of connected spaces.

I believe the only way to tackle large complicated models like this is to use DSM.

Any info greatly appreciated.

Regards