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<p><font size="2">Jonathan, welcome to our world. To shed some light on the issue - this is a "gray" area that is often taken advantage of when conducting energy analysis. Looking at the IES handbook some lighting levels for particular rooms range from 50 to 100 fc. This seems ridiculous but lighting is perceived. It is not a hard science, factors like interior colors, occupant age and health (glasses ? no classes), etc all contribute to what is an appropriate lighting level. When conducting an energy analysis engineers need to be reasonable and set parameters for their buildings that are within the IES range and correct for their space's use. The engineer should also have an idea of the interior colors, reflectances, demographic of the occupants to be using the space, know if shading will be a factor in the facility (internal or external) etc.. </font><br>
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<font size="2">If I know a space will be brightly light (because I asked the electrical engineer on the project) I'll use the higher level. If I know they will have task lights, I'll use a lower level. If the space has some task lights and I am not certain of parameters, I'll use a median value. I'm sure there are engineers that are conservative and use the upper extreme, and others that are very loose and want to earn more energy credit and thus will use the lower extreme. A good rule of thumb when designing parameters for the programs we use would be </font><b><font size="2">give us options. </font></b><font size="2">Maybe call them "loose" "median" and "conservative" </font><font size="2">and give us a list of all the room types in the IES handbook. I use Trane Trace and Revit, not Bentley but with Trace I wish they had built in templates from IES, from ASHRAE, and from the AIA, for lighting, for airflow, templates, outdoor air, etc.. it would make conducting energy analysis a lot faster. Because this was not done by trace or Revit, we've had to build them our selves as we work on projects. If a software package designed for the US market had these built in (and were accurate) it would be a </font><b><font size="2">huge </font></b><font size="2">selling point. The amount of time it takes to build in a standards library is substantial. Trane has jumped on board recently and released ASHRAE 90.1 equipment that meets the baseline standard, however it does not have room templates or lighting level templates there yet. </font><br>
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<font size="2">A question - does your energy analysis software interface with GBXML? We're in the market for new - more accurate - software. Specifically Trace does not do a building level air balance, and when you are using total energy wheels your going to either over shoot or under shoot your energy savings. This is a substantial deficiency when your building has 12+ air handlers and is located in a very hot humid climate.</font><br>
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<font size="2">Good luck.</font><br>
<font size="2">-Shariq<br>
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