Using templatesTemplates are intended to help simplify and speed up theprocess of entering and changing room information. They arebased on the idea that several pieces of information are commonfor many, if not all, of the rooms or types of rooms in a building.Examples of this type of similar information include designthermostat setpoints, wall/roof/floor construction types, amountand type of lighting, and so on. Templates are similar to theconcept of Master Cards in TRACE/Load Design600.The templates were designed for use in conjunction with theCreate Rooms – Single Sheet tab to allow the user to enterroom information on one screen. This allows much quicker entryof room data. In addition, because the user does not need torepeatedly select construction types, densities, and so on,templates reduce the chances of input errors. Finally, templatesalso make changes to files, and comparisons betweenalternatives, much easier.There are five types of templates. However, the Room templateacts as a super template. It does not contain any specific roomdata, but it allows grouping of the other four templates listedbelow:■Internal Load template■Airflow template■Thermostat template■Construction templateTemplates are generally created for each type of room in abuilding—office areas, conference rooms, hallways, rest rooms,and so on. After the templates have been set up, they areapplied, as appropriate, to the individual rooms in the CreateRooms section. The templates will bring in values that would betypical for the room type being entered in Create Rooms, andallow the user to override these inputs with any atypical valuesfor that specific room.In the following scenario, a set of templates for the office areas of a building will be created and applied in Create Rooms.1The first step in using templates is to create the templates. Click Create T emplates —TRACE 700 will open to the Room template.Note: It is much easier to create templates before the rooms have been input. Applying templates after the rooms have been input is time consuming and often difficult to do. Refer to Additional Items in this section for instructions on reverting inputs to templated values.2No templates have been input into this file.Therefore, the Internal Load tab should be selected.3From the Internal Load tab, the generalcharacteristics of theoffice areas’ internal loads will be input. Click New and enter Office Areas into the Description field. Enter the appropriate T ype , Density , Loads , and Schedule for the people. Repeat this for Lighting andMiscellaneous loads .Note: The internal load schedules typically should not use the schedule Available 100% or any schedule where the heating-design day type is greater than zero. This will cause TRACE 700 to take credit for internal loads during the heating-designcalculation. For additional details on schedules, refer to “Creating schedules” on page 6–120.4With the generalcharacteristics for theoffice areas’ internal loads defined, select theAirflow tab. Here, thegeneral characteristics ofthe office areas’ airflowswill be input. Click Newand enter Office Areasinto the Description field.Input the appropriateT ype, airflow rate (if thedefault value needs to beadjusted), and Schedulefor the Ventilation.Repeat this for all relevant fields on the Airflowtemplate.5With the generalcharacteristics for theoffice areas’ airflowsdefined, select theThermostat tab. In thisscenario, all of the roomsin the building will beconditioned to the samethermostat setpoints,allowing a singleThermostat template tobe used for the entirebuilding. Click New andenter Building in theDescription field. Inputthe Cooling dry-bulbsetpoint, Heating dry-bulb setpoint, andRelative humidity. If thefile will be used for energy analysis, then the Cooling driftpoint and Heatingdriftpoint, or the Coolingthermostat schedule andHeating thermostatschedule, should be input as well.Note: In almost all cases, theAuxiliary supply and VAVminimum schedule should beleft at their default values. Also, the airflow schedules must not be internal load schedules orany schedule where theheating-design day type is zero.This will cause TRACE700 toneglect airflow loads during the heating-design calculation. For additional details on schedules, refer to “Creating schedules”on page 6–120.Note: Typically users need to either create their own Thermostat schedules orselect none and let theprogram use the driftpoints (Thermostat schedulesoverride the driftpoints and setpoints for energy analysis calculations). Also, the thermostat driftpoints activate whenever there are 5percent or less of the people in the space (determined from the people schedule on a room-by- room basis).6With the generalcharacteristics for thebuilding thermostatsetpoints defined, clickthe Construction tab. In this scenario, theenvelope components of the building will beconstant throughout thebuilding. Therefore, asingle Constructiontemplate can be used forthe entire building. ClickNew and enter Buildinginto the Description field.Next, select theappropriate Constructiontypes for the building,override U-factors andShading coefficients ifnecessary, and input theWall, floor-to- floor, andPlenum heights. If thebuilding does not containa certain constructiontype, use the defaultvalue. In this scenario, the building has noskylights—therefore, thedefault construction value will be used in thetemplate.7Finally, select the Room template so that theindividual templates canbe grouped together. Click New and enter OfficeAreas in the descriptionfield. Next, select theappropriate Internal Load, Airflow, Thermostat, and Construction templatesfor the room type.Note: Typically the wall height and floor-to-floor height will be the same value. Refer to onlineHelp for additional details.8Click Close T emplates and click Create Rooms.To start inputting theroom data, give the rooma name (Office 101, in thiscase). For the Roomtemplate, select OfficeAreas.9The user now needs to input the appropriateroom-specific data (sizeof the space, walls,windows, roofs,partitions, and floors) and override any data fromthe templates that is notappropriate for the space.In this scenario, the roof,wall, glass, and floor area need to be input. TheSingle Sheet tab, pairedwith the data from thetemplates, can be used to input all of this data.Because this is the firstroom to be defined withthe templates, it is usually recommended that theindividual tabs be checked to verify the inputs for the space.10Now that Office 101 has been created, the otheroffices in the building can be modeled using thesame set of templates.Remember, templates for each type of room(offices, hallways,restrooms, and so forth)should be created, rather than one set of templates per room entered inCreate Rooms .In a typical TRACE700 file, templates for the other types of rooms (conference rooms, hallways, and so on) in the building would now be created.In this scenario, only offices will be modeled. A sample room will be input to show how to apply the templates. The room is 1,500ft2, has a flat roof, one east-facing exterior wall with 30percent glass, and is fairly typical of the other office spaces.Note: When the Roomtemplate is selected, manyof the values (such asInternal loads and Airflows)will populate based on theinputs from the InternalLoad, Airflow,Thermostat, andConstruction templates.Note: This building does not haveany skylights. Therefore, none willbe input in the Create Roomssection. This is the reason that theskylight glass type on theConstruction template could beleft at the default value.Additional items and notes1Any changes made to the template(s) will change the data in all of the rooms that use that template. Therefore, if the glass type specified in the project changes, all that the user needs to do is change the glass type in the Construction template(s) used by the rooms. If no templates were used in the file, then each wall would need to be manually changed to the new glass type. This is one of the ways that templates help save time.2When a templated value is overridden in Create Rooms, the color of the entry changes from red to black. It is important to understand this distinction. When you reapply or change anexisting template, only the values in red are affected. Entries in black must be changed manually or reverted back to thetemplated value.3To go back to an original template value, click *T emplate on the list for that parameter, or type in * and press enter for thenumeric fields.4Do not use any non-alphanumeric characters in the names of templates or rooms.5Create templates before creating rooms.6Project templates apply to only one file.7Global templates can be used in any number of files. They are created from the Library/Template Editors program. Globaltemplates are created in a very similar process and are usedwhen the same type of buildings will be modeled repeatedly.8 A Project template cannot be exported to a Global Template.9Create a Global template to make it available for any file, then add the Global Room (or individual) template into the Project.10When editing information, always check the upper left-hand corner of the screen to ensure that the correct alternative isbeing edited. Also verify that the correct template is being edited.11For additional details on how to use alternatives and templates, please refer to “Creating alternatives” on page6–114.12In Component T re e view, the user can press ALT+Z to revert the selected overridden value to a templated value quickly.Creating alternativesAlternatives can be created efficiently using three options:Use/Copy, Create based on, and Create new.■Use/Copy: Simulation will use data from another alternative,which minimizes calculation time and will not increase file size.Note: The Use/Copy option should only be applied to sections ofthe alternative where no changes will be made, because the userwill not be able to edit information in any section that uses datafrom another alternative.■Create based on: TRACE700 will create an editable copy ofinformation from another alternative, which will increase the filesize and the calculation time. However, the user can editinformation in any section that is created based on data from aprevious alternative. This option should be used when changesneed to be made to a section, but inputs similar to a previousalternative will be used.■Create new: TRACE700 will create a new section with no data, which will increase the file size and increase calculation time. Theuser can input completely new information in any section that isnew. This option should be used when changes need to be madeto a section or alternative, but inputs are not similar to the otheralternatives.Application considerations■The first step in creating alternatives is to determine how similar the existing alternative and the new alternative will be. In general,the more sections that use data from another alternative, thebetter. However, if changes need to be made to a portion of analternative, Create based on (if the alternatives are similar) orCreate new (if the alternatives are very dissimilar) should beused for the appropriate section(s). Two examples will be used toillustrate how to create alternatives in TRACE700:Multiple air-handlers served by a chiller plant vs. a large centralair-handler served by the same chiller plant,andA glass comparison.。
