Graphical representation of node/equipment variables on a schematic of the plant loop

[macumber]

https://openstudio.uservoice.com/forums/308629-openstudio/suggestions/10771254-graphical-representation-of-node-equipment-variabl

Problem:

Checking the behavior of a plant or air loop is currently limited to plotting graphs of the chosen Node variables (temperature, flow rate, setpoints, etc). This mode of representation, while useful, makes it hard to analyze considering you have to mentally replace it physically in the plant loop (which node is where, etc).
Having a way of representing it on a schematic of the plant loop would help a lot. To my knowledge this has never been implemented in another GUI yet, and yet I feel it'd be an amazing feature to have.

Rationale:

For troubleshooting or QA/QC or investigation, looking at the detailed output of a plant or air loop is extremely important.

Solution:

What I propose is to implement a graphical representation similar to what you would see on a BMS, with the same type of time controls you have in the "View Data" measure.
My initial thoughts are as follows:

1. Export OpenStudio plant/air loop view (or another way of graphically representing the plant loop with the equipments and branches etc)
2. Add some fields on each node of said loop to receive temperature, mass flow, setpoints (etc)
3. Add time controls to be able to display/navigate hourly or timestep values (similar to the View Model, you could pick a day and then cycle on each timestep during that day, etc)

Additional Features:

Additionally, I could see the following features being useful too:

• Being able to click on a few data fields and have them be plotted in "real time" (for your chosen day when you cycle through the timesteps) in a graphing window (that you could move around)
• Adding some equipment/zone values: such as current chiller kW, PLR and efficiency, zone cooling load, pump kW and PLR
• Adding another section for additional site variables such as outside air DB/WB

Pros and Cons of Solution:

• Easy understanding of plant loops

• Difficulty of implementation?

[aaron-boranian]

Migrated from UserVoice