Every zone must be assigned to a system regardless of whether it is conditioned or unconditioned. If it an area external to the building, you may ignore inputting the zone into the project. The DOE calculation engine we are using requires all zones to be assigned to a system including an unconditioned zone. Note that including an unconditioned zone will not have any impact on the cooling or heating size of the system. One reason it has to be assigned is to account for any ducts that might pass through the unconditioned zones, but that is not the case in our calculation. Leaving it out is not a good option since lighting has to be complied with still. So, assign the unconditioned zone to one of your systems and that should be OK. If any further issues come up because of this, please contact us with the file and we will assist you.
Austin Coats
I am doing energy calculations on a metal building where 3/4 of the building is warehouse/storage and will not be conditioned. The other 1/4 of the building will be offices and is conditioned. I created (2) separate zones for these different areas, but when I run the calculations, the un-conditioned zone gives me an error and tells me i have to assign a "system" to it. How am i going to assign a system to something that does not have air conditioning? Or do i just run the energy calculations on the office space and do not include the warehouse/storage portion of the building?