[Bldg-sim] White Box Technologies announces the establishment of a Center for Open Source Building Simulations

Chris Yates chris at zed-uk.com
Fri Jan 22 02:03:56 PST 2010


LAST EMAIL SENT BEFORE I'D FINISHED!

Joe,

I love the idea. I hope you can get the funding.

My view is: We need good software in the public domain, but I still want the
guy who's writing it to be able to afford his mortgage!

There could be some mechanisms to achieve funding through a consortium.
However, I believe a certain degree of control over source code is needed
that favours stakeholders otherwise finance depts just won't buy it.

For those unacquainted with Open Source, one of our comedians - Stephen Fry
does a good explanation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dcxtEKShXA

Chris Yates	

PS. This email was written in MS Outlook on Windows XP - the irony!


-----Original Message-----
From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Joe Huang
Sent: 21 January 2010 20:53
To: bldg-sim at onebuilding.org
Subject: [Bldg-sim] White Box Technologies announces the establishment of a
Center for Open Source Building Simulations

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

White Box Technologies wishes to announce its intention to establish a 
non-profit Center for Open Source Building Energy Simulations (COSBES). 
I admit the title may sound a bit on the grandiose side, but it 
capsulizes my thinking on what may help our little world of building 
energy simulations - a non-profit non-commercial center on simulation 
programs and resources that's in the public domain.

My initial goals are very modest, but my long-range vision is for the 
Center to be capable of significant software development and support, 
but always open source. My first steps are simply to maintain an 
open-source version of DOE-2.1E. DOE-2.1E has been effectively abandoned 
by LBNL and DOE for close to a decade. I have assurances from LBNL that 
it's only a matter of paperwork for them to make the program open 
source, and have communicated to them my intentions without receiving 
any objections.

So what would this support consist of, besides making the program and 
source code freely available? That would of course depend on the 
public's (your) interest and need, which is one reason for this 
announcement! But for starters, I have a backlog of completed work that 
have never been incorporated into the public release version of 
DOE-2.1E, such as two-dimensional and combined response factors for 
composite walls, a decent foundation model, and an improved weather file 
format.  In addition, I'm currently working on contract for ORNL to 
incorporate AtticSim into 2.1E. Lastly, I have a license from LBNL to 
continue working on my last major work there - a partially-completed 
DOE-2 to EnergyPlus translator (doe2ep) that, funding pending, can be 
updated to the current EnergyPlus release. Also in the works and soon to 
be launched are (1)  VisualEPlus, a graphical user interface for 
EnergyPlus done by colleagues in China, and (2) actual-year weather data 
service accessing NCDC's massive International Surface Hourly (ISH) data 
base.

I had originally thought of calling a meeting at ASHRAE to make this 
announcement, but then realized that finding a time to meet at ASHRAE is 
an impossibility. However, I would be happy to entertain any questions 
and comments while at the conference, where I'll typically be found in 
TC 4.7 and 4.2 meetings. For course, I'm also open to questions and 
comments posted on BLDG-SIM, although my responses will be somewhat delayed.
-- 

Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd. Suite 108D
Moraga CA 94556
(o) +925 388 0265
(c) +510 928 2683
yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
www.whiteboxtechnologies.com




-- 
Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd. Suite 108D
Moraga CA 94556
(o) +925 388 0265
(c) +510 928 2683
yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
www.whiteboxtechnologies.com

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