Create and Edit a Heat Demand

This guide provides a step-by-step procedure for creating and editing heat demand objects within a thermal network. A "heat demand" external object (HDEM) in SAInt represents the energy consumption at a specific node within a thermal network to satisfy the heating demand of a customer.

1. Create a heat demand

To create a heat demand at a specific node, right-click on the desired node in either the Map Window or the model explorer. From the context menu, select the option "Add New External" and then click on "Heat Demand" as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Add a new heat demand object to a node. The figure shows the case of accessing the creation context menu from the model explorer.

2. Edit a heat demand

Once a heat demand object is created in SAInt, the user can edit its property directly in the Property Editor. The Property Editor is automatically opened after creating the heat demand. Amongst those properties, the user can modify all entries in blue.

2.1. Edit properties

The properties of a heat demand external are listed in the Property Editor according to different categories. They can be customized as shown in Figure 2. The user can choose to define:

Appearance: the user can turn on/off the visibility of the heat demand.
Default Charts: the user can access the list of default charts associated to the heat demand.
General properties: the user can customize the name in the Name property and add any additional information on the heat demand in the Alias property.
Group: the user can check the groups the heat demand belongs to.
Label: the user can access to the list of labels linked to the heat demand.
Operation: the user can choose to modify the operational status of a heat demand by enabling or disabling the InService property.
Scenario: the scenario section helps to visualize the different events associated to the heat demand within the scenario.
Topology: the user can reassign a heat demand to a different node using the Nodename property.

Figure 2. Edit properties of a heat demand.

2.2. Edit constraints

SAInt allows for the definition of default constraints for a heat demand object like, for instance, the maximum flow or the minimum and the maximum temperature. Such constraints are used in a scenario to limit the possible values of a solution. The default constraints of a heat demand can be defined as shown in Figure 3. Amongst these constraints, the user can customize:

DefMaxFlow: use QMAXDEF to define the default maximum mass flow rate from the hot side to the cold side.
DefMaxInHeat: use PHIMAXDEF to define the default maximum amount of heat exchanged out of the flow.
DefMaxTemperature: use TMAXDEF to define the default maximum value of the downstream temperature and the upstream temperature.
DefMinTemperature: use TMINDEF to define the default minimum value of the downstream temperature and the upstream temperature.

Figure 3. Edit the default constraints of a heat demand object.

The heat demand at a node can be controlled in a scenario by several types of events. For more information on configuring heat demand events in SAInt, refer to Create and Edit Valid Events for a Heat Demand.