Energy analysis software?

[kevin stone]

Hi all
I am wondering what everybody is using for software to model buildings for
energy savings thru equipment and controls upgrades.
We have been subcontracting out most of the engineering for the rebate process and would like to do more of it in house.
We currently are using Trace from Trane and System analyzer from Trane and we have no love for either
Thanks in advance
Kevin

[Chris_Worthington]

TRIDIUM

Most everything you would need to know could be done through this platform and "if" your looking for a bigger picture the Vykon Energy Suite would more then accommodate your needs...

[kevin stone]

TRIDIUM

Most everything you would need to know could be done through this platform and "if" your looking for a bigger picture the Vykon Energy Suite would more then accommodate your needs...

Hi Chris sorry I wasn't clear.
We are looking for a program to help with a prebuy evaluation to estimate savings that a system may bring to the facility and to help the owner qualify for rebates
Thanks
Kevin

[sysint]

Well - if you investigate the others out there you will have new appreciation for Tranes Trace.

[digo]

engineering for the rebate process
Kevin

I haven't used these, but they are used in the assessment process and are freely available from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's website:
https://gaia.lbl.gov/people/pxu/public/DRQAT/index.htm

[jdd67]

The Department of Energy has released its most recent upgrade to EQuest. This is a "free" tool with fairly good wizards for assembling mechanical systems and assigning loads. There are a few chunky manuals and some forums that will help you also. I have found the databases to contain the majority of typical construction types of walls, windows and roofs, but you can always create your own and assign R and U values.

On the down side, it is nearly impossible to port your own weather data into the system, but the weather database is fairly substantial. I put quotes around "free" because it comes with a soft cost, vey little technical support.

http://www.doe2.com/equest/

[kevin stone]

The Department of Energy has released its most recent upgrade to EQuest. This is a "free" tool with fairly good wizards for assembling mechanical systems and assigning loads. There are a few chunky manuals and some forums that will help you also. I have found the databases to contain the majority of typical construction types of walls, windows and roofs, but you can always create your own and assign R and U values.

On the down side, it is nearly impossible to port your own weather data into the system, but the weather database is fairly substantial. I put quotes around "free" because it comes with a soft cost, vey little technical support.

http://www.doe2.com/equest/

I am downloading it now, are you talking about version 3.6? it is dated 3/9/07
is this the "new" version?????
thanks
Kevin

[s2k008]

TRIDIUM

Most everything you would need to know could be done through this platform and "if" your looking for a bigger picture the Vykon Energy Suite would more then accommodate your needs...

Chris,

What are you using through the Tridium platform for energy analysis?
Does this require any hardware like kw meters?
I'll research Vykon.

[x-wrenchturner]

Trane's "Trace 700" modeling software is practically an industry standard.

It is recognized by the DOE and the IRS among many others, and has a proven track record.

It isn't the most user friendly tool right out of the box, but given the complexity of it's nature this should be expected.

Trane's "Energy Analyzer" software is a severely watered down version that is a lot more user friendly, but with ease of use comes reduced functionality.


.02

[jdd67]

I believe 3.6 to be the correct version, but I will check when I get to the office.

[Chris_Worthington]

Chris,

What are you using through the Tridium platform for energy analysis?
Does this require any hardware like kw meters?
I'll research Vykon.

KW meters, BTU Meters, some of the built in energy blocks in Kit Control, math blocks, etc.

Real time energy usage and comparison energy usage to a previous time.

We have also started playing around with "Enforma" to know when something is beginning fail to increase energy usage i.e. a heating valve sticking open a little and a cooling valve having to open up further to meet the same setpoints, etc, etc. So far it seems to work well...

[ToeMoss]

Recently, a speaker at an ASHRAE meeting who's very involved in energy modeling said she feels "EnergyGauge Summit Premier" to be the best on the market at this time.
I haven't used it myself yet, but I have used other software by the same developer and can't say that I like it.
I'll report back once I've had an opportunity to try the "Premier" version, I sure hope it's good.

[GONFISHN]

[QUOTE=Chris_Worthingt;2005969]TRIDIUM
QUOTE]

This is Chris' answer for everything, and while I was looking through the controls commitee thread the other day I see that he has been in the controls industry for 5 years. Guess that would explain why