Compact Schedules

General tab on Schedules Dialog.

Compact Schedules are defined using a slightly modified version of the standard EnergyPlus Schedule:Compact format documented below.

Using the Compact Schedule definition all the features of the schedule components are accessed in a single command.

Name

This field is for your own use and is replaced by DesignBuilder with the name of the Schedule when generating data for EnergyPlus.

ScheduleType

ScheduleType should generally be Fraction even for schedules to be used for temperature setpoint definition.

You can enter Any Number to enter values greater than 1 but please bear in mind:

The maximum gains values (e.g. people/m2) are multiplied by the values in the schedule to obtain the actual value to use at each time step in the simulation. So if you enter large schedule values the actual maximum value in the simulation will be higher than the 'maximum' value entered in DesignBuilder. There is no problem with this, just a possible concern that if the DesignBuilder interface indicates that the maximum occupancy density is say 0.1 people/m2 but the schedule has values > 1 then the simulation results will, at first sight, appear incorrect. If you come back to the model 6 months later you may not remember the reason.
Temperature set-point schedules should only have values 0, 0.5 or 1.0.

So generally we recommend using Fraction Compact schedules for clarity.

Field-Set (Through, For, Interpolate, Until, Value)

Each Compact Schedule must contain the elements Through (date), For (days), Interpolate (optional), Until (time of day) and Value.

Through

This field starts with 'Through:' and contains the ending date for the schedule period. You may define multiple schedule periods in this way, for example to define seasonal variations. If there are no seasonal variations then enter: Through: 31 Dec, to indicate that the data that follows applies to the whole year.

Note 1: each Compact Schedule must cover all the days for a year and it must have values for all 24 hours and all values for all day types.

Note 2: The dates in the Through fields must be provided consecutively, starting at the beginning of the year and finishing at the end of the year.

Note 3 only Month-Day combinations are allowed for this field.

For

This field starts with 'For: ' and contains the applicable days. Multiple choices may be combined on the line.

Choices are:

Weekdays,
Weekends,
Holidays,
Alldays,
SummerDesignDay,
WinterDesignDay,
Sunday,
Monday,
Tuesday,
Wednesday,
Thursday,
Friday,
Saturday,
CustomDay1,
CustomDay2.

In fields after the first 'For', 'AllOtherDays' may also be used.

Note: EnergyPlus has limit of line length of about 60 characters so lines like:

For: Weekdays SummerDesignDay WinterDesignDay Weekends Holidays AllOtherDays,

should be changed to:

For: AllDays,

Interpolate (optional)

Schedule values are input to the simulation at the zone time step, so there is also a possibility of 'interpolation' from the entries used in this object to the value used in the simulation. This field, if used, starts with 'Interpolate:' and contains the word 'Yes' or 'No'.

Until

This field contains the ending time for the current days and day schedule being defined. The data should represent clock time (standard) in the format HH:MM. 24 hour clock format (i.e. 1pm is 13:00). Note that 'Until: 7:00' includes all times up through 07:00 (7am). The time is followed by a comma and the value the schedule takes until the given time. See note above on usual values. Generally you should enter values between zero and 1.

Value

Finally, the value field is the schedule value for the specified time interval.

Note: you can use 0 for Temperature type Compact Schedules to indicate that the heating/cooling system is switched off during the specified period. See Example 2 below.

Example 1 - Operation Schedule

SCHEDULE:COMPACT,

Office_CellOff_Light,

Fraction,

Through: 31 Dec,

For: Weekdays SummerDesignDay,

Until: 07:00, 0,

Until: 19:00, 1,

Until: 24:00, 0,

For: Weekends,

Until: 24:00, 0,

For: Holidays WinterDesignDay AllOtherDays,

Until: 24:00, 0;

This schedule is intended to be used to describe the lighting operation in an office. It indicates:

Schedule is a fraction (0-1).
No seasonal variation.
Weekdays and SummerDesignDays the schedule is 1 (i.e. 'on') between 7am and 7pm and 0 (i.e. 'off') other times.
Weekends, holidays, WinterDesignDays and all other days the schedule is 'off'.

Important Note on SummerDesignDays and WinterDesignDays. A common mistake is to inadvertently include internal gains from occupancy, computer gains or lighting in heating sizing simulations. This leads to heating systems to being undersized. The general rule is to avoid including any internal gains in heating sizing simulations. This is done as shown in Example 1 above, by using a value of 0 for WinterDesignDay for any schedule to be used to control internal gains.

Example 2 - Temperature Setpoint Schedule

SCHEDULE:COMPACT,

Bedroom_Cool,

Temperature,

Through: 31 Dec,

For: Weekdays SummerDesignDay,

Until: 05:00, 0.5,

Until: 09:00, 1,

Until: 17:00, 0.5,

Until: 24:00, 1,

For: Weekends,

Until: 05:00, 0.5,

Until: 24:00, 1,

For: Holidays WinterDesignDay AllOtherDays,

Until: 24:00, 0;

This schedule is intended to be used to describe the cooling temperature setpoint and setback in a bedroom. It indicates:

Schedule is a temperature (in degC).
No seasonal variation.
Weekdays and SummerDesignDays the main temperature setpoint data (Activity tab) is used between 5am and 9am and also between 5pm and midnight. Cooling operates at setback temperature setpoint data at all other times on these days.
Weekends the cooling setpoint is main temperature setpoint between 5am and midnight. Cooling operates at setback temperature setpoint data at all other times on these days.
Holidays, WinterDesignDays and all other days the cooling is off.

IMPORTANT NOTE: even if you are using IP units for the main interface you must use SI units for compact schedule values as these are passed directly to EnergyPlus.