Unheated Spaces - Do I Need to Bother?

[rossd01]

Hi all!

Real quick question! I'm modelling a block of flats, within which there are unheated spaces such as the stairwell, lift shaft, electrical switch rooms, and drying areas.

Some of these areas have louvered openings to the outside (such as drying areas). I was going to go to the trouble of assigning openings in the walls to mimic these louvers (aside: does IES VE do louvers?), and also assigning openings in the floors of the stairwell to mimic the characteristics of the spaces. (The lift shaft I have made one continuous space).

Before I attmept this, i suddenly thought - does it matter? And would these openings simply be extra work for vanity? I'm only concerned with the spaces inside individual properties i.e. bedrooms, lounge etc, and i'm unsure if doing a 'quick pass' on these other spaces will adversely affect my model.

Any help much appreciated!

Thanks

[Complex Potential]

The important thing is the adjacent condition. If you think that the unheated spaces are going to be at outside temperature and the thermal insulation runs inside those zones then you can probably omit them. Otherwise it's probably worth including them (although modelling air movement up the stair core is a bit overkill imho).

Also, louvres in IES should be modelled as doors with macroflo profiles assigned.

[rossd01]

Hi there,

This is SUPER, thanks so much for that. Yes, the constructions within these zones are different (and have different thermal/insulation properties) so i may be ok to omit them. That saves some time!