[Bldg-sim] EPact 2005 tax savings

Ellen Franconi EFranconi at archenergy.com
Wed Feb 25 16:25:31 PST 2009


Joe, thanks for shedding some light on the acceptance criteria and how
it compares to other approaches.
 
It is truly a shame that eQUEST has not been approved yet. I do not
know what the hold up is but I believe the program was submitted years
ago to DOE for acceptance. VisualDOE was accepted a couple of months
after its application was submitted. It makes you wonder what DOE 2.2 is
missing that DOE 2.1E has. Better submittal documentation?
 
eQUEST is probably the most widely used program for performing
simulation analysis in the U.S. With our current administration's
initiative to promote an energy-efficient economy and have Federal
Buildings achieve 30% better performance than 90.1-2004, it is
inconsistent that this program is not fast-tracked for acceptance. With
construction costs climbing dramatically, these tax incentives could go
a long way to help achieve what they were designed for - promoting
energy efficient buildings in the U.S. 
 
If anyone on BLDG-SIM can provide insights into why eQUEST has not been
accepted, please share this with the rest of us. And if no explanation
can be provided, perhaps we can use our BLDG-SIM critical mass to
encourage DOE and/or the software developers to push this through the
acceptance process.
 
Ellen
 
 
Ellen Franconi, Ph.D., LEED AP
Energy Analysis Group Manager
Architectural Energy Corporation
2540 Frontier Avenue
Boulder, CO 80301
tel. 303-444-4149
fax 303-444-4303
efranconi at archenergy.com 
http://www.archenergy.com/ 


>>> Joe Huang <joe at drawbdl.com> 02/25/09 2:17 PM >>>
I frankly don't understand the criteria of acceptance for software 
approval.  It seems to accept any program that's self-described as 
capable of dynamic simulations with time-varying inputs and outputs,
and 
has gone through the ASHRAE/ANSI Standard 140 comparisons. But Standard

140 is just a cross-program comparison for very simplified cases, sort

of digital hot-box experiments, if you will.  Does this mean that all 
simulations done with these programs are valid and credible ?  Any
DOE-2 
simulation ? Any EnergyPlus simulation ? Of course not.  It's all in
the 
inputs, and if the inputs or modeling are faulty, the results could be

all over the map.   If we compare this criteria of acceptance to 
California's Title-24 Certification of compliance programs, the 
approaches are almost completely opposite.  Here, the criteria are 
whether the programs have the right fundamentals or "intentions" ; 
there, the criteria are whether the programs give the right results.  
I'm afraid we're leaving the barn door open for a lot of questionable 
claims backed up by the use (or abuse) of supposedly approved
software.

Joe Huang



Xiaobing Liu wrote:
> As I remember, Green Building Studio (GBS) is on the list. Since GBS

> runs eQUEST (and other software?) behind the screen, can the tax 
> credits be granted if the building performance simulation is
conducted 
> by eQUEST through GBS. I'm a bit confused here. Can anyone shed light

> on this issue?
>  
> Xiaobing
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     *From:* bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org 
>     [mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org]*On Behalf Of
>     *David S Eldridge
>     *Sent:* Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:22 PM
>     *To:* bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org 
>     *Subject:* Re: [Bldg-sim] EPact 2005 tax savings
>
>     It is currently not submitted for approval.
>
>    
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>      
>
>     David Eldridge, PE
>
>     LEED® AP
>
>
>     *Grumman/Butkus Associates* | 820 Davis Street, STE 300 |
>     Evanston, IL 60201 | Ph: (847) 328-3555, ext 224 | Fax: (847)
328-4550
>
>      
>
>     Energy Consultants and Design Engineers
>    
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>      
>
>      
>
>      
>
>     *From:* bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org 
>     [mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] *On Behalf Of
>     *Chris Mullinax
>     *Sent:* Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:26 PM
>     *To:* bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org 
>     *Subject:* [Bldg-sim] EPact 2005 tax savings
>
>      
>
>      
>
>     http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/qualified_software.html 
>
>      
>
>     Epact 2005 tax credits were extended to 2013 in the recent
>     “Stimulus Package.”
>
>      
>
>     I’m looking at a page on the DOE web site that lists approved
>     software used obtain Epact 2005 tax credits, and I notice eQuest
>     is not specifically listed. DOE-2.1 is listed however. Does
anyone
>     know if eQuest will be acceptable for EPact 2005 simulations?
>
>      
>
>     The link to the list is given above.
>
>     Any help is appreciated.
>
>      
>
>     Thanks,
>
>     Chris Mullinax, P.E. LEED AP
>
>      
>
>     pn: 770-387-1334
>
>     fx:  770-387-1383
>
>     chris at mullinaxsolutions.com <mailto:chris at mullinaxsolutions.com>
>
>     www.mullinaxsolutions.com <http://www.mullinaxsolutions.com>
>
>      
>
>      
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Bldg-sim mailing list
> http://lists.onebuilding.org/listinfo.cgi/bldg-sim-onebuilding.org 
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list send  a blank message to
BLDG-SIM-UNSUBSCRIBE at ONEBUILDING.ORG 
>   

_______________________________________________
Bldg-sim mailing list
http://lists.onebuilding.org/listinfo.cgi/bldg-sim-onebuilding.org 
To unsubscribe from this mailing list send  a blank message to
BLDG-SIM-UNSUBSCRIBE at ONEBUILDING.ORG
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/bldg-sim-onebuilding.org/attachments/20090225/3770c936/attachment-0001.htm>


More information about the Bldg-sim mailing list