[Equest-users] Urgent Message
Nick Caton
ncaton at smithboucher.com
Wed Nov 4 14:40:38 PST 2009
Curt,
First, as you've hopefully gathered, you have already found the "tech
support" department for eQuest (at least in my eyes): the
[Equest-users] and [Bldg-sim] mailing lists hosted at onebuilding.org.
Let me summarize and add to some of the key advice (which I fully agree
with) that's been posted so far. This advice is general and should be
considered well by any eQuest beginner:
1. Hard truth: You should not be expected to become fully
proficient with a program as expansive and powerful as eQuest within a
week. Anyone believing this (yourself included) needs a reality check.
If that is truly a hard deadline and the modeling must be done with
eQuest, you are best advised to find a local mentor (i.e. do not solo
this) and/or compensate another energy modeling consultant to get the
work done on time (and walk you through the model so that you can
manipulate and ask questions). Alternatively, use a program you're more
familiar with.
a. Soft truth: Truly lucky is the individual who gets to learn
energy modeling software outside of a hard deadline with a simple
building (students pay attention!). To that end, as a group we're
generally sympathetic to the "trial-by-fire" situation that a lot of us
went through. Take care not to let your emotions get in the way of
learning/help.
b. Design engineers/consultants such as yourself will inevitably
spend long hours at first making less accurate models, but as you invest
the hours learning the ins and outs can look forward to more accurate
models produced at a much quicker pace.
c. In a literal sense, the statement that learning to model
building will take years is an understatement. Anybody who tells you
they know all there is to know is lying through their teeth. The most
intelligent modelers never stop learning. That said, it is not
unrealistic to produce your first model in a week, understanding and
accepting it will not be the most accurate model you will ever build.
2. Your primary source for any question regarding the operation of
eQuest/DOE2 should start by right clicking the field in question and
pulling up the appropriate help file. You can also search from there.
3. Your secondary source for any question regarding eQuest, or
items in the help files you need a layman's explanation of, should be to
search the mailing list archives. Odds are a majority of the questions
you'll have have already been asked/answered (BOOKMARK/FAVORITE THESE):
a.
http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/bldg-sim-onebuilding.org/
b.
http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/equest-users-onebuilding.org/
4. A tertiary source is to google a specific topic that hasn't
come up. It's a big internet out there.
5. It's apparent from the tone of your email that you've got to
take a chill pill =)! It's understandable to be unimpressed with the
"lack of technical support," but only to the extent that you weren't
previously aware of the huge international body of
scientists/engineers/designers/practicers of building energy modeling
here at these mailing lists. I'll venture there is a lot more to be
learned here than at any 1-800 tech support number for any modeling
package out there.
6. Remember - in a support forum like this, where the majority of
helpful responders are doing so of their own good-will (it's not our
job), a few key things apply that normally don't with a "tech support"
line:
a. The most detailed & informative answers consistently come from
detailed & informative questions.
i. I
believe a majority of unanswered queries are due to questions not being
completely posed. Always explain what you have tried, what hasn't
worked, what clues you have etc. to the best of your ability.
ii.
There's a sizeable academic crowd subscribed to these lists that may not
be inclined to respond if it's apparent you haven't looked up the basics
for the topic-at-hand.
b. Pay it forward =). The best learning comes from
teaching/sharing knowledge with others, and individuals you help out are
more likely to return the favor!
c. Politeness is a rule, not an option.
d. Good grammar (at least for a native English speaker) is a rule,
not an option. It will become apparent if it hasn't already that this
is an international body of subscribers with knowledgeable professionals
that simply won't waste their time trying to decipher poorly written
inquiries. Proof your questions/responses.
This isn't all specific to your situation Curt, but I've been wanting to
write this up for a while so that I can refer others to some of this
basic info. Best of luck, and I hope we'll all see more of you here!
~Nick
NICK CATON, E.I.T.
PROJECT ENGINEER
25501 west valley parkway
olathe ks 66061
direct 913 344.0036
fax 913 345.0617
Check out our new web-site @ www.smithboucher.com
-----Original Message-----
From: equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Kevin
Kyte
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 2:08 PM
To: 'equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org'
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Urgent Message
Learning how to do computer simulations for buildings from scratch
without a mentor will take years.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Wark [mailto:cwark at rumseyengineers.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 1:31 PM
To:; 'equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org'
Subject:
Curt,
Welcome to the world of FREE software. Energy, airflow, and design
software packages with an actual market value usually do come with more
extensive training material, but in this case, the fastest way to learn
eQUEST is to look at as much of the built-in help as possible by right
clicking on any input field. In fact, the built-in help documents are
rather extensive for FREE software (perhaps because it was developed
through government and utility grants). Beyond the help documents, the
only way to learn common work-arounds is through users forums. I have
found that users are pretty responsive on this one.
Good luck.
Christopher Wark
Project Engineer
___________________________
RUMSEY
E N G I N E E R S
Energy Efficient Design
99 Linden Street
Oakland CA 94607
510 663 2070 x 239
fax 510 663 2080
cwark at rumseyengineers.com
www.rumseyengineers.com
___________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Curtis
Strobehn
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:18 AM
To: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Equest-users] Urgent Message
I am under a dead line and I'm have trouble with Equest
IS there any training DVD videos of any kind for Equest?
If there where training Video's at one time there should be a back copy
or
some other source?
I'm sure there has to be a video somewhere!
I even tried www.youtube.com and couldn't find one thing about Equest.
I'm just a little upset that I have every little time to get this
project
done by the 9th November and no training or any Training videos.
Tools are only good if you know how to use them and with out any
training or
training videos, then Equest is useless to me.
I have used this Equest before but it was not a complex build like the
round
building "Kaiser medical Office" in Salem Oregon.
Every program I ever used there was some contact info or tutorials on
line.
This is a first for me and being an Energy Simulation program
I'm every surprised there is on contact number or training videos?
I HAVE NOT FOUND ANY TECH SUPPORT FOR EQUEST OR ANY CONTACT NUMBER.
I'm not to impress with Equest so far.
Curt Strobehn
Mechanical Draft/Designer
EESI Consulting Engineers
687 NW 5th Street |Corvallis, OR 97330
Tel: (541) 754-1062
Cell: (541) 829-9628
Fax: (541) 753-3948
www.eesinet.com
_______________________________________________
Equest-users mailing list
http://lists.onebuilding.org/listinfo.cgi/equest-users-onebuilding.org
To unsubscribe from this mailing list send a blank message to
EQUEST-USERS-UNSUBSCRIBE at ONEBUILDING.ORG
_______________________________________________
Equest-users mailing list
http://lists.onebuilding.org/listinfo.cgi/equest-users-onebuilding.org
To unsubscribe from this mailing list send a blank message to
EQUEST-USERS-UNSUBSCRIBE at ONEBUILDING.ORG
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/equest-users-onebuilding.org/attachments/20091104/a4532ab7/attachment-0002.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1459 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/equest-users-onebuilding.org/attachments/20091104/a4532ab7/attachment-0002.jpeg>
More information about the Equest-users
mailing list