[Equest-users] eQUEST Compliance Analysis Revisions

[eQuest Followup]

Hello to the list-

Madison Engineering P.S.(MEPS) provides James J. Hirsch & Associates (JJH) assistance on the development of the compliance analysis capabilities for eQUEST energy analysis software. In August, 2010, JJH released eQUEST v3.64. This version has been approved by the California Energy Commission for compliance with California's Title 24 energy standards for nonresidential buildings. eQUEST v3.64 also includes the capability to automatically generate a baseline building project that meets the requirements of ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007 Appendix G. Title 24 compliance and 90.1 baseline building generation are performed automatically by eQUEST using a "compliance analysis ruleset"  (ruleset) that interprets and converts the user created project. The JJH goal is to create rulesets that can operate on any valid user project, as long as that project can be opened in eQUEST without errors, and reliably perform Title 24 analysis or create a 90.1 Appendix G baseline building.

The JJH team has been monitoring the eQUEST Users listserve and observed that several contributors have reported errors in the compliance analysis process. These errors present themselves through two steps:

1. The compliance analysis process stops, and a dialog appears stating something like: "Compliance Analysis Error: Error(s) encountered Evaluating Budget Conversion Rulelist ..." The dialog also allows the user to view the errors.
2. If the user chooses to view the errors, a second dialog appears that lists the errors. An example of an error is: "Error Assign zone to baseline floor system: CRRule::Eval() error posting symbolic (value 4.37216e-297) result to BDL"

In almost every circumstance, these errors are the result of problems with the compliance analysis ruleset and, unfortunately, cannot be rectified by the user.

We are in the process of investigating and fixing bugs in the compliance analysis rulesets. Having actual user created projects that encounter these types of errors is invaluable to our development process. It would be very helpful if users would provide us with any eQUEST projects that encounter compliance analysis errors. If you are willing to help us out, please place the eQUEST project file (with a file name format of <project name>.pd2) and the DOE-2 input file (with a file name format of <project name>.inp) in a compressed archive file such as .zip or .7z format and email to eqcomp at madisonengineeringps.com. We will keep any submission fully confidential, only allow access to those materials by our development group for the purpose of diagnosing eQUEST problems that require fixing, and not release to anyone for any purpose. In your email, it would also help if you would tell us a little bit about your project, especially if you are trying to simulate something unconventional, such as using the IU system to represent chilled beams, simulating a DOAS, etc. Again, JJH and MEPS assure you that we will use these files only for development, testing and debugging purposes.

Please note that we do not intend to provide technical assistance with these projects, so you may not hear anything back from us except to inform you of upcoming updates to eQUEST. However, please accept our thanks in advance for any problem projects you are willing to provide. On a final note, please do not reply to the equest users list with your projects unless you want the entire list to have those projects. Email those files directly to us at eqcomp at madisonengineeringps.com.

Sincerely,

eQUEST Compliance Analysis Support Team
c/o Madison Engineering, P.S. and James J. Hirsch & Associates