[EnergyPlus_Support] EnergyPlus V 1.2.2 released

[Drury.Crawley@xxxxxxxxxx]

The newest version of EnergyPlus (1.2.2) was released
on April 22, 2005 (Earth Day!) and is now available
in versions for both the Windows and Linux operating
systems. You can download EnergyPlus at no cost from
the EnergyPlus web site:  www.energyplus.gov .

What's New in Version 1.2.2?

A few of the new features are listed below.
See www.energyplus.gov/features.html for a complete
list of new features added in this and previous
versions:
 -- modeling of ventilated photovoltaic roof and
    other cladding systems
 -- natural cross ventilation
 -- simplified definition of HVAC systems
 -- refrigerated casework
 -- variable speed cooling towers
 -- link to SPARK to simulate complex equipment and
    systems not in EnergyPlus
 -- more than 2,200 pages of documentation
and speed improvements throughout.


User Interfaces

Several interfaces and utilities for EnergyPlus are
available. EP-Quick creates an EnergyPlus input file
based on a broad range of zone templates.  EP-Quick
was released in April 2005. E2AC is an interface in
Portuguese available in a beta version (since January
2005). An English version of E2AC is planned in the
next few months. DesignBuilder is a full-featured
interface available in a beta version. Several other
interfaces are under development. Watch our web site
(www.energyplus.gov/ep_interfaces.html ) for up-to-date
information on these and other interfaces.

A number of utilities and tools for creating, editing,
and running input files come with EnergyPlus,
including IDF Editor, EP-Launch, and HVAC-Diagram (see
www.energyplus.gov/ep_utilities.html ). Third party
tools for creating, editing, and displaying EnergyPlus
input files are also available, including DrawBDL,
EcoTect, Green Building Studio, EzDrawPlus, IFCtoIDF,
TSe+, and EzPlus-Parm.  See
www.energyplus.gov/third_party_tools.html for more
information.


What can I expect with V1.2.2?

      Are there considerable differences between
      version 1.2.2 and 1.2.1?

            Yes.... and no. There are a number of
            new features and bug fixes.

      How about IDF and IDD? Do they remain unchanged?

            There will be some changes in the IDD and
            reflected in IDFs. Particularly for any
            new features, there will be new objects.

      Is version 1.2.2 backward compatible? Can I
      run a v1.2.1 file in v1.2.2?

            For the most part, the answer is yes.
            Some report variables have changed
            names.  To be sure, you can execute
            the transition program  that will
            "transition" IDFs from V1.2.1 to V1.2.2.
            You can also view the ObjectStatus
            spreadsheet in the root folder of the
            installed version. This file has detailed
            explanations of changes to the objects.


EnergyPlus Weather Data

More than 240 weather files have been added to the
EnergyPlus web site since the last release. Weather
data for more than 900 locations in 100 countries are
available on the EnergyPlus web site:
www.energyplus.gov/weatherdata.html.  If you have
other weather data that you'd be willing to share with
other EnergyPlus users, please contact the EnergyPlus team.


Thanks!

The EnergyPlus Team





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