[Bldg-sim] rebuilding eQuest model in EnergyPlus

Mon Oct 10 12:05:18 PDT 2016

Hi Holly,

This is kind of the inverse query, but very recently I had an exchange over unmethours.com with an individual trying to convert a project’s geometries from e+ to doe 2.1e:  https://unmethours.com/question/20238/doe21e-geometric-input/

Therein I touched on SIMEB.   Among other things, I understand SIMEB is one path to get from e+ to doe2 and vice versa, though you may need to re-specify systems and zonal associations along the way.  I have had a single “rocky” experience converting a project from e+ to doe2 (for the previous lowdown showdown challenge), but I’d largely chalk those difficulties up to not reading the manual.  On that first try I was able to get spaces, zones, and MOST geometries across correctly alongside “placeholder” systems…  some heavy QC & redevelopment would have been necessary if I pushed further down that path.  Would personally be interested to explore the capabilities of SIMEB further in the future… and I haven’t tried the inverse conversion just yet (might make for an easier/smoother first effort!).

I also singled out Joe as the fellow behind http://www.drawbdl.com/ . DrawBDL is a for-cost solution which is probably of interest for your intended workflow, but you’ll need to confirm with Joe or other DrawBDL endusers the present extents of what it can presently convert and from which versions of doe2.  I’m not for example certain of how well DrawBDL handles doe 2.2/2.3 geometries relative to 2.1E, or how far beyond geometries DrawBDL extends.

If it turns out you do have a “budget” for this conversion process, I understand over the years Joe also has developed a number of unpublished scripts which can automate some/lots of the process (depending on the systems & components involved) and it may be possible to contract him on a project-by-project basis to get a larger fraction of the conversion effort done for you.  You’ll have to ask him nicely ;-).

To address Jim’s suggestion:  the only commercially available interoperability path I recall between eQUEST/doe2 and a gbXML schema is/was via GBS … not sure where that stands today, as it has been some time since this was of interest for my projects.  Maybe someone from Autodesk can comment?

~Nick

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From: Bldg-sim [mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Brian Fountain via Bldg-sim
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2016 7:52 AM
To: Samuelson, Holly Wasilowski <hsamuelson at gsd.harvard.edu>
Cc: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] rebuilding eQuest model in EnergyPlus

There is a tool from Quebec called SimEB that is cross platform between DOE-2.1, DOE-2.2 and EnergyPlus. Not sure if it will import an .inp ‎but it may be worth some investigation.

I believe the link is www.simeb.ca<http://www.simeb.ca>

From: Jim Dirkes via Bldg-sim
Sent: Friday, October 7, 2016 4:40 PM
To: Samuelson, Holly Wasilowski
Reply To: Jim Dirkes
Cc: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org>
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] rebuilding eQuest model in EnergyPlus

Holly,
If you can export gbXML from eQuest, I know DesignBuilder can import that format as well as a number of others ... but I've never done it, so I don't know how much detail comes with it :(

On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 4:24 PM, Samuelson, Holly Wasilowski via Bldg-sim <bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org>> wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

Do you have any time-saving advice or tips for recreating an eQuest model in EnergyPlus? (We would like to keep most of the geometry, zoning, scheduling, and other inputs as similar as possible, and then be able to take advantage of some E+ functionality.)

Thank you in advance for any help!

Warmly,

Holly

Holly W. Samuelson, DDes | LEED | Registered Architect
Assistant Professor Harvard Graduate School of Design

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