I am just going through all the videos, guides, user guides, etc to see if I can get a basic understanding of the Energy Evaluation feature of AC 17. So far, a lot of questions and problems.
The major issue is zones. One minute they are okay, then on another try, it lists a number of "offending" zones. I fix these, and then another series of zones appear. It seems that the modeling system is never happy with all the room zones. I have tried the three different techniques for zones, polylines, etc. Still problems. Has anyone successfully manages to have "happy zones" all around?
Secondly, I have some basic questions in terms of approach. Is it really better to set up wall composites that automatically calculate thermal qualities of a wall? or to override this and just assign your own, based on calculations from a separate spreadsheet? I have been using more generic walls, rather than composites, but may need to go that direction all the way.
Another question is whether you need to assign thermal performance values to interior walls between spaces. (I think not, unless the interior wall is between two thermal zones, but am not sure).
If you draw a polyline inside a space to define the boundary (in cases where there is no contiguous surrounding wall), does the zone reflect the depth of penetration of doors and windows?
If a material that is part of your project (wall composite) is not in the "catalog" of materials, can the catalog be amended?
I have been trying to find an up-to-date user guide, to no avail. The videos are somewhat helpful, but not in terms of overall approach.
If anyone is willing to spend a bit of time answering questions by phone, I would appreciate it as well.
