Figure out a coherent way to set HVAC Availability for Openstudio

[chriswmackey]

Here is some info from Chien Si (copied from an email):

So, for this issue of simplifying the availability managers and help users get up to speed. Here are my suggestions:

I can't speak to the set zone schedules component. I don't quite use this much.
The reason that there is an availability manager and availability schedule on the air handler detail is primarily because smaller systems (type 1 and 2) use this as opposed to using the more advanced availability manager list. It is possible to NOT use an availability manager for the more complex systems, but I wouldn't normally encourage that. The airside economizer has an input for availability manager, but according to the 8.1 documentation, this feature is essentially worthless. (see AirLoopHVAC:OutdoorAirSystem. If it is confusing, my recommendation would be to do away with it for now. Airside economizers are tough enough.

It still makes sense for me to build up some examples. I'll work on this tomorrow. For the mean time, keep asking questions, and I'll send what I think would be a prioritized list of features and tutorials to take this to the next level.

[antonszilasi]

@chriswmackey @chiensiTB Are you saying that we should do away with the availability manager all together. This was my understanding of the discussion and you're right the availiability manager list is essentially worthless - http://bigladdersoftware.com/epx/docs/8-2/input-output-reference/group-air-distribution.html#field-availability-manager-list-name-1

[chiensiTB]

We would only do away with it on the airside economizer. It is still essential elsewhere, this is my opinion. It is a fundamental control object for many components.

[chriswmackey]

I feel we should have just one common way to set availability and I agree with @chiensiTB that this should be done through an availability manager (since it seems to be the method that exposes the most options). This means that I will eventually get rid of the HVACAvailability on the zone level once we have this up and running.