IES-VE User Forum

Hello,

I want to check a commercial building for VE Compliance. I begun by modelling one single room to see how the use of a prototype ApacheHVAC system would influence the results. I followed the procedure as described in the user guide. I imported the prototype system and then I followed the auto sizing procedure. I edited system schedules and parameters, I run room and zone level sizing and system equipment and plant sizing. However, when I enter VE compliance an error appears saying that NCM simulation may not use Misc or None fuels. Could you please advice on how I could resolve this issue so I can run the simulation.

Thanks,
tmakri

Hi,

I know we covered this via Tech Support over the past few days but summarising here for others.

For UK Compliance regs the NCM specifies that you have to only use fuels from the standard list so they can consistently calculate the total carbon and primary energy using NCM conversion factors.

Traditionally in VE we have these standard fuels and then extra fuels (known as miscellaneous) that are provided for apache simulation users to create custom energy consumptions which can help with specifying different CO2 factors or tracking certain end uses in Vista results and reporting for example. The pre-defined ApacheHVAC systems take this a step further since they are built into the VE ASHRAE 90.1 workflow where special fuel codes are for final BPRM reporting and end use breakdowns.

If importing for a UK Compliance simulation then the ApacheHVAC network has to be modified so that all boilers, chillers etc use standard fuel codes so for example where the fuel code used is 'electricity - cooling' you have to edit it to be 'electricity grid supplied' etc. A quick way to do this is to have a look at the import options in ApacheHVAC when bringing in the pre-defined system as there are different options you can toggle on and off, be sure not to bring in data you don't need for example a simple system probably only uses one of the pre-defined hot water lops but will import all of them, similarly you need to check for DX Types etc and either delete those you don't use or modify the fuel codes.

Phil