<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Good-day!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I am new to the ESP-r world and would like a recommendation of how to accurately / efficiently model the energy consumption of an 18 floor apartment building.  Attached are two floor plans of the 1st and 2nd floors (please note that there are significant inconsistencies between the two plans ie. the location of elevators, and stairs etc..). The 1st floor has 47 rooms which I have combined into 10 different zones. The 2nd floor has 39 rooms that I have combined into 11 zones (4 apartments per floor + 1 stairwell + 2 elevator shafts + 4 loggias / <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 16px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; ">mezzanines</span>). The floors numbered 3-18 have the same geometry as the 2nd floor. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Specific questions:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1) I have decided to enter the geometrical data directly into ESP-r model. I think that this is easier then using a 3rd party program (dwg / dxf files) to create the floor plans and then later import the files into ESP-r. Was this the right choice? </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">2) I have created the 5 floors of geometry and have noticed that I will quickly run out of zones. Can I simplify my model to 2 or 3 floors and then extrapolate the results for an 18 storey building? </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">3) I have combined all the rooms in the apartments into one large zone and one small zone; hence I am assuming very well-mixed conditions / temperature distributions within a large air volume. Is this combination of rooms possible or do I need to keep the room / apartment complexity in order to accurately model the network flow / dynamic infiltrations? </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">4) A 5 floor building with 10/11 zones per floor leads to a very visually complicated model in ESP-r. It is very difficult to modify zones / grometry etc.. due to the visual complexity. Is there a way to hide zones? </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I am sure more questions will arise as I dive further into modelling this building. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Cordially, </div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ian</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px; ">L'</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px; "><em style="font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; ">école des Mines</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px; ">de</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px; "><em style="font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; ">Nantes</em></span></div><div style="position:fixed"></div> </div><br>  </body></html>