[Equest-users] Is eQuest still under development ?

Nick Caton ncaton at smithboucher.com
Fri Apr 27 10:11:08 PDT 2012
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Jeremiah to your original query:

If you'll look to the archives you'll see many have asked the same question.  I and others have responded to many of these repeat queries with a cohesive answer:  those of us who have invested the time to explore the 90.1 compliance tool have concluded it is a work in progress at best.  The documentation specific to using the compliance ruleset says as much, and it is quite true.

If you asked the mailing lists in the past and got no response, I'm personally sorry if that caused any bad feelings but that unfortunately is the nature of the beast at times:  the supply/demand ratio for individuals with enough time to help out a stranger doesn't always favor those with the questions - that's a primary reason the archives are so important as a support resource.

Everyone:

Knowing what the compliance tools presently accomplish, I have myself resolved to generally advise others to avoid using it entirely in its current state, for any project on a tight deadline.  Newer users especially are better off and will save time focusing on learning to build their own baselines from their proposed models, until this set of features is further along.

I would encourage more intermediate/advanced users to give these compliance options a try, explore the implicit workflow adaptations, and draw/learn from how baselines are put together in an automated fashion - but *not* on a real project with a pending deadline.  You might very well pick up a few "aha!" tips along the way that save yourself time and improve/enlighten your understanding of modeling for LEED, but don't count on the compliance tools to be a timesaver or even totally function for a given project.

A LEED feature I DO recommend all users trying, whether you are using the compliance ruleset or not:  File -> Export File -> LEED Results

This is something everyone should stop and experience once with a completed project.  Depending on how long you've been working with LEED+eQuest - this could be a real timesaver if adapted into your workflow.  The time in a workflow you would use this in an active project would be upon finishing your proposed and baseline models (with rotations), and before beginning to tackle the LEED templates.  The resulting file pulls a lot of inputs together I am used to printing a stack of reports to draw from.

I hope development of LEED features in future eQuest releases fleshes this area out further - exporting a "LEED input report" for uploading to LEED Online would be great.  At first I thought this would be unreasonable/unwieldy, but I have input to share on this front if this seems within reason for the development team.

~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: equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of CleanTech Analytics
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 10:31 PM
To: Jeff Hirsch
Cc: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Is eQuest still under development ?

Many apologies Jeff-
Glad to see the project is still alive- and then back to my original question, does the LEED Complacence manager to the best of your knowledge work?

I was told not to use it, and and have had troubles with it.

My original question is intact, does it work and I must have made some error, or is there "issues" with it, so it should not be used?

Many thanks and sorry if my statements where out of line.

Best regards-


Jeremiah D. Crossett
CleanTech Analytics
503-688-8951
www.cleantechanalytics.com<http://www.cleantechanalytics.com>

[http://cleantechanalytics.com/images/stories/cleantech%20analytics%20120.PNG]

This document may contain valuable information proprietary to CleanTech Analytics which is private and confidential. It may not be shared, copied, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written consent of CleanTech Analytics


On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 7:52 PM, Jeff Hirsch <Jeff.Hirsch at doe2.com<mailto:Jeff.Hirsch at doe2.com>> wrote:
The Mark Twain quote is most appropriate. Thank you Chris. Our group rarely participates in these forums, but I felt some response to this somewhat annoying rumor was needed. Some of the discussion also brings to mind another familiar proverb: a bad workman always blames his tools. But also I am reminded that, if all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. So I add to the "controversy" here.

eQUEST and DOE-2 are alive and well and our combined development efforts are at an equal or higher funding and effort level than ever before. However, we will continue to provide all our DOE-2 and eQUEST products as freeware to the simulation communities around the world. We support the overall community activities so that the community can offer analysis and support services to derive income based upon use of our products.

We tend not to compete with the community by offering those same analyses and support services ourselves with the exception of providing eQUEST and DOE-2 training. Thus we as a group do not normally offer fee based support services except to a small group of our long-term clients who also generally support our development efforts - we leave those fee based support service opportunities to you, the user community, as an income source.

With thousands of eQUEST and DOE-2 installation around the world, we receive too many emails per day to possibly respond. We especially cannot respond to standard support requests as that request should be directed to those offering fee based support services. We try to pay attention and examine requests when program bugs or errors are suspected. But quite often we need to delay any fixes to the next program release. Our focus on DOE-2.3 and program develop environment changes for both eQUEST and DOE-2 has slowed our releases for the past two years. That will change this year, so be patient please.

We do not develop eQUEST or DOE-2 using a license fee income based model. Rather we develop our tools to support the analysis needs of our major clients and the general user community. We have no plans to change our model. Like all software, eQUEST and DOE-2 will have quirks, bugs and limitations. No realistic or truthful company offering software could claim otherwise. However, we plan to continue making improvements and have the resources to do so.

What is coming? Several things are coming in the next year. DOE-2.3 has been in beta for some time. We will release that new version when we are confident it can be used in production work in place of DOE-2.2. A version of eQUEST that fully supports DOE-2.3 that will be released at the same time. DOE-2.2 is also still under development, but we tend to implement all major new features in DOE-2.3 rather than DOE-2.2. We expect to release an update to both eQUEST and DOE-2.2 soon with DOE-2.3 and its eQUEST version later. The DOE-2.2 refrigeration version development continues, however more priority has been placed on DOE-2.3 recently; however, we will also release an update to that application as well and we consider that version an important product to continue to upgrade well into the future.

I am not sure why rumors of the impending death of DOE-2, that started in the late 1990's, continue to persist since the evidence for the past fifteen years should have proven those rumors wrong. Similarly, the rumors about the death of eQUEST that have appeared more recently can be also similarly be ignored as completely false. The real history shows that our DOE-2 and eQUEST products have proven to have more funding and longevity "legs' than any other existing similar software. While other development groups struggle to advance one simulation program or one user interface we have shown that our group can do both the engine and interface with major advances to both for decades and as freeware. I see no change coming in our ability to continue the upgrade of both in the current decade.

You should, as a community, be more concerned with the long term viability of other groups making big claims that have a long way to go before they can claim to be offering the simulation community the mature, stable, reliable capabilities free as you get from our products. It is much easier for a developer to claim their product can do amazing things than it is for the user community to realize those possible gains while maintaining the ability to deliver services to their clients competitively in a timely manner. We plan to do our best to continue to offer you products that allow you to perform your job or earn a living, and keep your clients satisfied. In return we ask for your continued support, patience and generally good vibes. We also ask that you continue to support one another in this and other forums, as the freeware nature of our products requires the user community to hang together and exchange information and ideas.

With that, I return to my observation deck.

ps - For some reason I and others in my group do not get all the emails from this forum - of the multiple emails Mr. Crossett sent to the forum and myself below I received none but I did, obviously see the one I am now responding to. Not sure of the cause, but I do get hundreds of emails per day and cannot even open many.

________________________________
Jeff Hirsch
James J. Hirsch & Associates

From: Chris Balbach<mailto:cbalbach at psdconsulting.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 10:05 AM
To: CleanTech Analytics<mailto:jeremiah at cleantechanalytics.com> ; jglazer at gard.com<mailto:jglazer at gard.com> ; equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org> ; jeff.hirsch at doe2.com<mailto:jeff.hirsch at doe2.com>
Subject: RE: [Equest-users] Is eQuest still under development ?

All:

I think it was Mark Twain who said "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

I note a (presumably working) demonstration of the CanQuest software is on the slate for the ESim conference in Halifax next week. See page 14 of the ESim Program posted here: http://esim.ca/

All the Best,

_Chris

Chris Balbach, PE, CEM, CMVP, BEAP, BESA, BEMP
Vice President of Research and Development
Performance Systems Development of NY,LLC
124 Brindley Street, Suite 4,Ithaca, NY 14850
http://www.psdconsulting.com
ph: (607)-327-1647<tel:%28607%29-327-1647>





From: equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org> [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>] On Behalf Of CleanTech Analytics

Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 12:50 PM
To: jglazer at gard.com<mailto:jglazer at gard.com>; equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>; jeff.hirsch at doe2.com<mailto:jeff.hirsch at doe2.com>
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Is eQuest still under development ?

List, I do not mean to cause controversy but I am going to re-post this to see if it gets a response this time.


When I had an issue I tracked down the phone number for the Hirsch's of
805-532-1045<tel:805-532-1045>, and left a voicemail, then was texted back the message
"please send email to jeff.hirsch at doe2.com<mailto:jeff.hirsch at doe2.com> and when I emailed the below I
never got a response, and after that as well as after much research showed there is no DOE funding, or sales revenue to fund the eQuest project assumed that the project is "dead"....If I am wrong, someone from the eQuest development team please respond to my questions?


Jeff,
I am working on a LEED compliance building model in eQUEST, and have to ask you a question. So I created a building that has zero insulation, standard lighting watts/sqft and ran the compliance analysis. The building that is not at code energy costs are in the sixty thousand range, and the 0,90,180,270 average that should be at code is in the ninty thousand range.This %30 savings for the building that has zero insulation over the building that has been auto generated to be complaint with ASHRAE/LEED shows that for some reason the building that is not at code (zero insulation) uses 30% less then the building that is suppose to be at code, and I am sure that the software is wrong.

Now I have read the PDF published on the subject, and am very curios if the
compliance analysis tool is something that you believe to work correctly?
(I would be happy to find out I made some error, but can not find any such
errors on my part, and someone told me that the tool does not work so I
doubt it is error on my part)


Jeremiah D. Crossett
CleanTech Analytics
503-688-8951<tel:503-688-8951>
www.cleantechanalytics.com<http://www.cleantechanalytics.com>


This document may contain valuable information proprietary to CleanTech Analytics which is private and confidential. It may not be shared, copied, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written consent of CleanTech Analytics


On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 9:30 AM, Jason Glazer <jglazer at gard.com<mailto:jglazer at gard.com>> wrote:
I am not upset. I just couldn't tell if you meant to just send that to Maria Elena. My guess is you are going to generate some controversy but that is ok with me.

Jason


On 4/26/2012 11:28 AM, CleanTech Analytics wrote:
Sorry Jason, could you please school me-- what is going on
with CanQuest? Why is it that the well documented complience
tools can not be used? What should I not say to not upset
the modarater? I only said what I think is true
from research and use of the tool.



/Jeremiah D. Crossett/
/CleanTech Analytics/
/503-688-8951<tel:503-688-8951>/
/www.cleantechanalytics.com/<http://www.cleantechanalytics.com/> <http://www.cleantechanalytics.com>


*

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to CleanTech Analytics which is private and confidential. It
may not be shared, copied, stored or transmitted in any form
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On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 9:19 AM, Jason Glazer
<jglazer at gard.com<mailto:jglazer at gard.com> <mailto:jglazer at gard.com<mailto:jglazer at gard.com>>> wrote:

   Jeremiah,

   Did you mean to send this to the mailing list?

   Jason


   On 4/26/2012 11:16 AM, CleanTech Analytics wrote:

       The eQuest project is dead, anything that is current
       is what
       there is, and there is not more development going
       into the
       code. There many are issues, and no support other
       then this
       list. To use eQuest you must be comfortable with
       developing
       workflows to work around issues you may come across.
       CanQuest will never be finished, so don't hold your
       breath,
       also do not use the compliance tools if you expect
       to create
       a compliant building, as they do not work.

       You could allwees use a spreadsheet to convert, but
       the text
       files are very time consuming to convert to spreadsheet.





       /Jeremiah D. Crossett/
       /CleanTech Analytics/
       /503-688-8951<tel:503-688-8951> <tel:503-688-8951<tel:503-688-8951>>/
       /www.cleantechanalytics.com/<http://www.cleantechanalytics.com/>
       <http://www.cleantechanalytics.com/>
       <http://www.__cleantechanalytics.com<http://cleantechanalytics.com>

       <http://www.cleantechanalytics.com>>



       *

       This document may contain valuable information
       proprietary
       to CleanTech Analytics which is private and
       confidential. It
       may not be shared, copied, stored or transmitted in
       any form
       without the prior written consent of CleanTech Analytics

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       On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 6:49 AM, Alex Blue
       <ablue at sustainable-solutions.__ca
       <mailto:ablue at sustainable-solutions.ca<mailto:ablue at sustainable-solutions.ca>>
       <mailto:ablue at sustainable-__solutions.ca<mailto:ablue at sustainable-__solutions.ca>

       <mailto:ablue at sustainable-solutions.ca<mailto:ablue at sustainable-solutions.ca>>>> wrote:

           Hi Maria Elena,____

           __ __


           eQuest doesn't have metric units available yet,
       though
           that's one of the major features the Canadian
       version
           (called CanQuest) that is under development will
       add.
           It has been "soon to be released" for a couple
       of years
           now, though, so I would get used to manual unit
           conversions for the moment.____

           __ __

           Alex____

           __ __
         *From:*equest-users-bounces at __lists.onebuilding.org<http://lists.onebuilding.org> <mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>>
       <mailto:equest-users-bounces@<mailto:equest-users-bounces@>__lists.onebuilding.org<http://lists.onebuilding.org>
       <mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>>>

         [mailto:equest-users-bounces@<mailto:equest-users-bounces@>__lists.onebuilding.org<http://lists.onebuilding.org> <mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>>
       <mailto:equest-users-bounces@<mailto:equest-users-bounces@>__lists.onebuilding.org<http://lists.onebuilding.org>

       <mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>>>] *On
           Behalf Of *Maria Elena Soldatti
           *Sent:* April 25, 2012 5:10 PM
           *To:* equest-users at lists.__onebuilding.org<http://onebuilding.org>
       <mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>>
       <mailto:equest-users at lists.<mailto:equest-users at lists.>__onebuilding.org<http://onebuilding.org>

       <mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>>>
           *Subject:* [Equest-users] Question about Units____

           __ __


           ____

           Can I usemetric units? when andwhere I can makethe
           change in units?____

           __ __

           Thanks. Maria Elena..____


           --
           La vida te da sorpresas, sorpresas te da la vida. Ay
           Dios!____
           _________________________________________________
           Equest-users mailing list
       http://lists.onebuilding.org/__listinfo.cgi/equest-users-__onebuilding.org

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