Synopsis

In ECOTECT, operational and cost schedules can be created and assigned to elements in your model. This allows you to specify when and for how long these elements will be operated, such as working hours and public holidays. In turn, this information can be used in calculations such as resource consumption, or when exporting to other analysis programs, such as EnergyPlus.

This tutorial explains how to create, edit and save schedules using the Schedule Editor. In this example, we will create a schedule that reflects a typical working year within an office.

Duration

You will need about 10 minutes to complete this tutorial.

Training and Accreditation

Successfully completing this tutorial fulfills one of the practical skills required for completing Level 3 of the Geometric Modelling training module.

Resources Required

To complete this tutorial, open a new ECOTECT file.

Tutorial

The Schedule Editor

1. To start working with schedules in Ecotect, go to the Model»Schedule Editor menu item. This opens the Schedule Editor, as shown in the following screenshot:
   

   The Ecotect Schedule Editor.
2. The Schedule Editor shows what is effectively a blank canvas - we need to start filling in the schedule to indicate things such as working days, working hours and public holidays. To help us with this process, we can load in some generic schedule data, such as public holidays for a particular state or province. To do this, click the button located to the right of the Schedule Name field, and then select Import Schedule... from the context menu.
3. A file dialogue box appears, prompting us to load Hourly Schedule Data. Ecotect comes with a list of important schedules for major cities around the world. For this tutorial, let's load the Australia - Public Holidays WA.sch file. Click Open.
   

   As a starting point, load the WA public holidays schedule.
4. The selected schedule data is loaded into the Schedule Editor - note that some cells are now colour-highlighted. According to the legend shown in the bottom right hand corner of the Editor, this colour represents public holidays. If you select the Public Holiday under the legend, the hourly operational profile is displayed above (though not much to see there at the moment).
   

   WA public holidays have now been loaded into the schedule editor.
5. We can also assign profiles to the days in the schedule manually - for example, let's nominate all of the weekend days. To do this, select the first Saturday (Jan06) in the schedule, and then scroll down to the bottom of th schedule. Holding down the Shift key, now click on Sunday (Dec 30) - this should select all of the weekend days. Select Standard Weekend in the legend, and then click the Assign button. Now all of the selected days should be highlighted blue.
   

   Assign the weekend days manually.

Configuring hourly operational profiles

1. Now that we've set up a basic schedule, we need to configure hourly operational profiles for each of the day types used from the legend. Start by selecting Standard Weekday. Note that the operational profile is currently empty.
2. For each hour, specify the operational percentage in the table below the graph. Alternatively, you can drag the red nodes in the graph to the required position. For the standard weekday, make the hours from 8am to 6pm 100%, and from 7pm to 9pm 60%. This kind of operational profile could represent a building operating at full capacity during office hours, and then at reduced capacity in the evening, reflecting a few late workers and cleaning staff still being present. This operational profile has now been assigned to all days in the schedule marked as Standard Weekday.
   

   Configure the weekday operational profile as shown.
3. In the legend, select Standard Weekend. Configure the hourly operation profile as shown in the following screenshot:
   

   Configure the weekend operational profile as shown.
   Again, this kind of profile could reflect cleaning personnel in the building, or some keen employees trying to impress their boss!
4. Operational profiles can also be copied from one legend item to another. Right-click on Standard Weekend, and select Copy Profile from the context menu. Then right-click on Public Holiday and choose Paste Profile - the Standard Weekend operational schedule has now been applied to Public Holiday. Of course, you can also still make changes to the copied profile as before.
   

   Profiles can be copied from one legend item to another.
5. You can also define your own operational profiles in addition to the standard defaults. Click on any of the [Undefined] legend entries, specify a new name and edit as required. For example, profiles can also be used to reflects consumption costs, such as electrical power being supplied at different peak and off-peak rates. In this instance, the operational percentage represents a percentage of cost.
   

   You can create your own custom legends as well.
6. Click the Add New Schedule button to save the schedule you have created.

Assigning Operation Profiles to Elements

1. Click Ok to return to the 3D Editor. Now create an object such as an appliance or a light.
   

   Create a light or appliance in the 3D editor.
2. Select the element, and then click on the Selection Information panel. In the list of attributes, scroll down and look for the Activation section. Under this section, you will see the Schedule entry. Click on the field, and in the context menu that appears, choose the Select Schedule menu item.
   

   Under the Activation section of the Selection Information panel, click on the Schedule field and choose Select Schedule.
3. A dialogue box appears, listing the schedule you created previously. Select it, and then click Ok.
   

   Select the required schedule to apply.
   The schedule is now assigned to the selected element in the model. This schedule of operational profiles will now be taken into account in not only Ecotect's analysis calculations, but also in models exported to other analysis programs such as EnergyPlus.

Tips

• Note that the date/day relationship shown in the Schedule Editor is generic - it is not intended to reflect a specific year, but rather a generic calendar year.
• If you need to define more than one operational schedule, click the Add New Schedule button near the bottom left hand corner of the dialogue box. The schedule will be saved, and another can now be created in addition to this.
• Schedules can also be exported from an Ecotect file for used in other projects. Select the required schedule, and then click the Library button. In the context menu that appears, choose Save Schedule Library. Exported schedules are saved with the .SLF file extension.