Documentation for thickness elements

[shorowit]

• FoundationWall/Thickness and Slab/Thickness - Clarify that these thicknesses should only apply to the structural wall/slab, not any continuous insulation (which may or may not even span the entire surface). HPXML has separate inputs (e.g., here) that allow the individual insulation layers to be described.
  • Does Wall/Thickness need updating too? Above-grade walls could have similar situations where, e.g., a wall is partially sided with brick veneer and partially sided with another material of different thickness. Would need to think about how ICF walls would have their thickness described.
• Clarify how a crawlspace over a dirt floor can be described. For example, it is only possible to obtain the crawlspace exposed perimeter by using a child element of Slab. In OS-HPXML, we document that a Slab should be used with zero thickness to denote that it's a dirt floor. Maybe there is a better way. We can probably live with the way things are in HPXML; see Relax Slab requirement for crawlspace NREL/OpenStudio-HPXML#1549.

[nmerket]

Wish list

• define exposed perimeter for crawlspace
• describe crawlspace floor (dirt, rat slab)
• vapor barrier on crawlspace
• mass floor vs frame floor

[nmerket]

Agreement on bullet 1 in the description. Get started on it.

[nmerket]

🎥 Discussion in HPXML Working Group Meeting 2022-05-27

[shorowit]

Created a separate issue for mass floors: #321

[nmerket]

🎥 Discussion in HPXML Working Group Meeting 2022-06-10