[EnergyPlus_Support] Re: sizing result (was: Post Processing)

["Jean marais" <jeannieboef@xxxxxxxxx>]

IMO:

Let's understand again what simulations are good at and what not.

Early Design:
Simulations at this stage are good at saying that this works better than that. 
They are reasonable at saying how much better this works than that.
They are bad at saying how much this or that has of an impact on the total building energy usage at peak consumption times or of the total summed consumption over a year.

Actually, a simulation's potential impact on final building performance is most useful here, to look at the broad effects of things like shading, geometry and orientation, envelope characteristics. Sadly, as Architects are occupied with selling pretty pictures to win as many project stages as possible at this point, the aesthetics and effort to optimize this robs time from technical efforts, meaning the early design phase is where simulation gets employed the least.

Middle Design:
Bloody hell! We've won the project because we are the cheapest...we are the cheapest because we're the "fastest". We need to work like mad people now to meet our unrealistic deadlines. Simu...what?

Finished Design:
Oh, and by the way we've promised a LEED certified building, GOLD, to the owner and need to find out what we need to do to achieve this. Construction begins in 2 weeks. Oh. Looks like we have to do a simulation.

And that's why, as Jim pointed out, most modelers are busy doing what simulations are the worst at...trying to reflect real life buildings after they're completely designed, but before they are built and commissioned. 

MORAL OF THE STORY
If you have the best ideas in the world, no one will know them if you can't sell them. Sales rules the world. Ironically, the people with the good ideas are often bad at selling. 



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