[Equest-users] eQuest 3.65 automatically creates ASHRAE compliant baseline bldg after running compliance anlaysis?

Nick Caton ncaton at smithboucher.com
Thu Jul 31 12:15:52 PDT 2014


Your is the most promising sounding experience I think I've seen.

I gave the 90.1 compliance features a number of tries early on when it was newly released, and came away bruised and beaten as there were many game-breaking bugs at the time that proved more time-intensive to work around than simply creating a baseline "from scratch."  I switched back to making separate baseline project files per my usual routine thereafter.  It's worth mentioning I've had a lot of experience building my own baselines, so my workflow is very streamlined on that front relative to someone who hasn't had as much experience.

I would strongly back up the emphasis on thoroughly reviewing all baseline model inputs before declaring it complete.  The help documentation for the feature (at least early on) stipulated there were certain things the tool did NOT do.

Even if the baseline generation features are more fully developed now (which is great news!), it probably remains solid advice to advise newer eQuest/DOE2 users to pick up the experience of "rolling your own" baseline models a few times, before relying on any such automations, especially under the auspices of even a cursory review process.  Generating a code-compliant baseline is an area where not understanding what is going on under the hood can have rather severe consequences (in terms of perceived competence from clientele/employers).

Altogether however, I'm really happy to hear this feature seems to have come a long way towards generating workable results!  Let us know how it turns out once you've had a chance to give it the fine-comb treatment!

~Nick
[cid:489575314 at 22072009-0ABB]

NICK CATON, P.E.
SENIOR ENGINEER

Smith & Boucher Engineers
25501 west valley parkway, suite 200
olathe, ks 66061
direct 913.344.0036
fax 913.345.0617
www.smithboucher.com

From: Chris Baker [mailto:CBaker at cci-alliance.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 2:00 PM
To: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Cc: Brian Fountain (bfountain at greensim.com); Nick Caton
Subject: eQuest 3.65 automatically creates ASHRAE compliant baseline bldg after running compliance anlaysis?


I've asked this in another forum but I haven't gotten any answers.

I wasn't even aware that this was something built in to eQuest 3.65 until last week.  But a few days ago I finished setting up my proposed building.

I then ran compliance analysis error-free after doing some troubleshooting (I had to revert to previous version of 3.65 to run successful compliance analysis due to floor layering errors).

when I ran my compliance analysis successfully (without any errors) eQuest automatically spit out a baseline PD2 file.

The name of the PD2 file is the same as the proposed building except it has a suffix of "LEED_Base_Bldg".

Everything appears to be ASHRAE 90.1 compliant for the baseline building (Air side and water side HVAC).

The water side systems have been automaticaly reverted back to their ASHRAE compliant configuration with DX coils, bypass factors, etc... (none of that was in the proposed building).

I am currently going through ASHRAE 90.1 to compare the baseline criteria to the automatically created building but as of right now I haven't found anything that needs tweaking.

I was under the assumption that I would need to create the baseline systems manually, by tweaking the electrical usage, U-values, insulation R-values, etc... of the proposed building and do a "save as".
Does anyone know if the automatically-created baseline bldg in eQuest is meant to be ASHRAE compliant?

For now, I'm going to continue looking for anything that needs adjusting but so far everything looks good for the baseline.

I've been warned not to trust the equest baseline outright, which is why I'm checking all my bases.

Currently, the baseline reverted all heating responsibilities to the air-side HVAC system.  In other words, All thermal zones fall under the air-side system as of right now (or at least that's what equest set up for the baseline).

Chris Baker
CCI CAD Drafter


________________________________
CCI-Alliance Confidentiality notice: This message is intended only for the person to whom addressed in the text above and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you are not that person, any use of this message is prohibited. We request that you notify us by reply to this message, and then delete all copies of this message including any contained in your reply. Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/equest-users-onebuilding.org/attachments/20140731/20f2dc81/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1459 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/equest-users-onebuilding.org/attachments/20140731/20f2dc81/attachment.jpg>


More information about the Equest-users mailing list