[BLDG-SIM] Open source building energy simulation program

James J. Hirsch JJHirsch at ez2.net
Sun Jan 23 23:29:10 PST 2000


I do not know of a comprehensive building simulation package that
is available under "open source" licensing, but I think it is a good idea.

My company has discussing this issue internally and think that it
would be in both the industry's and public's interest for energy
simulation engines to be open source. I believe such a move,
industry wide, will foster further use of these programs as
well as encourage wider development of such software; both
these results will, I believe, lead to better building energy modeling
tools that are more widely used throughout the buildings industry.

Open source, however, seems only half of a solution. Open source,
for example, does not directly benefit end users.  So additionally,
freeware executables of basic building energy simulation products
should be made available. The combination of open source and
freeware executables is in the best interests of the user community
and thus energy efficient building design.

To this end, last year I began releasing my company's versions of
eQUEST and "raw" JJHirsch PC DOE-2 versions as freeware,
including source for the calculation portions of the energy simulation
engine. I would like to know if the user and developer communities
think open source licensing should also be made available.

"Open source" for me means licensing along the lines of the GNU,
Mozilla, or similar licenses posted at www.opensource.org  These
licenses were devised to make sure future source enhancements
continue to benefit the entire user/developer community while
protecting the originator(s) copyright. These licenses do not impair
anyone's ability to perform private research or undertake private
development using the source. Charles Eley's point is these licenses
allow commercial distribution with restrictions. I believe, however,
that the commercial or for-profit distribution of privately funded
software can be easily addressed by the originator(s) placing options
into the open source license that facilitates distribution of derivative
and bundled works; such licensing can help supply the funds required
to accomplish open source publishing. For works originated with public
funds the BSD and MIT licenses are a more correct and widely
accepted choice for open source publishing and do not contain
the commercial distribution restrictions.

I'm sure there are pro's and con's to these ideas for the range of
developers and users of the various packages out there.  I'm
interested in hearing those varying views discussed openly.

I would like to develop a plan on how to proceed with this idea and
apply it to the open source and freeware release, as well as continued
maintenance, of the DOE-2 energy simulation engine.

I welcome comments and look forward to your ideas.


Jason Glazer wrote:

> Does anyone know of a building energy simulation program
> that the source code for the program is open source or is
> in the public domain without any licensing restrictions?
> By open source, I mean covered by a license that covers
> software products like Linux, Apache or PERL and allows for
> their use and extension without distribution restrictions.
>
> Jason
> (Proud creator of the BLDG-SIM mailing list)
>
> =========================================================
> Jason Glazer, P.E.  mailto:jglazer at gard.com  847 698 5686
> GARD Analytics - http://www.gard.com/
> Building Energy Simulation and Analysis
> List Administrator & 90.1 Consultant
>
> ======================================================
> You received this e-mail because you are subscribed
> to the BLDG-SIM at GARD.COM mailing list.  To unsubscribe
> from this mailing list send a blank message to
> BLDG-SIM-UNSUBSCRIBE at GARD.COM

--
Jeff Hirsch
James J. Hirsch & Associates
Building Performance Analysis Software & Consulting
12185 Presilla Road
Camarillo, CA 93012-9243 USA
phone: (805) 553-9000
fax: (805) 532-2401
email: Jeff.Hirsch at DOE2.com
web: http://DOE2.com



======================================================
You received this e-mail because you are subscribed 
to the BLDG-SIM at GARD.COM mailing list.  To unsubscribe 
from this mailing list send a blank message to 
BLDG-SIM-UNSUBSCRIBE at GARD.COM
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: JJHirsch.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 758 bytes
Desc: Card for James J. Hirsch
URL: <http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/bldg-sim-onebuilding.org/attachments/20000123/b0eafb68/attachment-0002.vcf>


More information about the Bldg-sim mailing list