Overview

The properties of rooms in your Energy Simulator model will be predetermined by the Room Type selected - each Room Type contains its own design properties according to the relevant CIBSE / ASHRAE standards.

However due to the COVID-19 situation, new requirements about how such rooms should operate may need to be adopted.

OpenBuildings Energy Simulator can help to incorporate these changes, by allowing you to edit and create Room Types.

Method

Under the Data Managers Tab, you will find the Room Types manager:

Here, a list of room types is displayed on the left, with the properties for each on the right. Each room type will have its own properties for Occupancy and Thermal Design, for example, and if you wish you can also assign data such as construction type.

Any of the room properties can be changed as you require, or a new room type can be created.

To do so, to ensure consistent design we would recommend copying the most similar room type, rather than creating one from scratch. For example, to create an Open Plan Office incorporating Social distancing:

• Expand the Office Building Type:
  
  
  
  
• Here, you can find the office room Types. Select Open Plan Office. To copy, you can right click on it and select Copy:
  

• Give your new room type a name, and upon completion it will appear in the room type list:
  

• Open plan spaces will now have requirements as to the maximum permitted occupancy, and the maximum number of people per square metre. These settings can be adjusted by expanding on Occupancy on the right. The Number of people per mode can be specified as Absolute, people per area, or area per person:
  

• Upon clicking on OK to save the new data, the new room type will be available when tracing your rooms.
  

Any rooms drawn subsequently will assume your new social distancing settings, with automatically calculated occupancy levels.