[Equest-users] eQuest and EnergyPlus

[John Aulbach]

Dan:
 
As a 25 year DOE-2 and 5 year eQuest user, I had to make a choice when Jeff Hirsch, inc and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory parted ways on energy program development. At the time, eQuest was coming into its own, with the 3_D view of the building, many of the DOE-2 features I was already familiar with, and a reasonbly simple (at least for me) Windows front end. It really hepled to have done DOE-2 before being introducted to eQuest.
 
I will plead ignorance to many of the features and front ends that EnergyPlus probably has. Now that I am currently unemployed, perhaps I can take the time to download it and its manual to see where things stand on the program.
 
In MY opinion, the two programs are (unfortunately) competing technologies. Both appear ready to embrace the BIM technology. so you could possibly take an AutoCad file, add a bit of infomation, and, presto, an energy model of some complexity occurs. 
 
You might also include the Trane Trace and Carrier HAP users, who will swear by there programs as well.
 
As the elder Zorro said in the first movie, "Tornado, we're getting too old for this." So I (and again in MY opinion) will stick with the program I am most familiar with. I am sure Energy Plus, with its US Department of Energy backing and continuous improvements, will eventually find a strong niche in the energy simulation field.
 
 


      
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