The Zone totals tab

Figure 1: The Zone totals tab in IDA ICE 5.1

The tab introduces the final calculated zone-relevant input for simulations, using the Zone multiplier, which is set to default 1. The multiplier allows to multiply the selected zone's number and with that, all relevant settings (surface area, ventilation rates, internal gains, interaction with adjacent zones, conductance and other geometry-relevant data) and simulation output (design loads, energy simulations results etc.).

The Multiplier is most useful when the building has a number of nearly identical zones (e.g. offices in the same facade): it eliminates the need to model every individual zone that otherwise has no different contribution to the final energy simulation results and speeds up significantly both the modeling and calculation time. 

Key rules to keep in mind when using the Multiplier:

• Do not use on ground- nor roof-connected zones: those zones have significantly different thermal behavior than intermediate zones and should be modelled and simulated.
• Do not cover more than 3-4 floors of nearly identical zones: the height difference more than 3-4 floors will result in different thermal behavior.
• Multiply only for same facade location: this concerns the solar load-based results.
• Make sure the final used surface area is matching the intended used area!

How to use:

Below an office building with 8 floors, 7 with identical single offices, 15 office per N/S facade and 4 corner meeting rooms/floor. This setup results in 34 offices/floor, ~240 individual offices in total. Figure 2 shows which zones could be multiplied on the individual floor plan and Figure 3 shows the multiplication on building level. After the simplification (deletion of the red overcrossed zones) the multiplier for the middle remaining zones should be 11 per floor. 

Figure 2: Office layout with zones to keep for multiplication.

Figure 3: Office building, floors to keep/remove for multiplication.