[Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report

Aaron Powers caaronpowers at gmail.com
Wed Nov 11 16:03:29 PST 2015 

Nader,

Some of this is a duplicate of the response to Joe Huang regarding the
down-draft system.  One thing I should mention is that we selected chilled
water coils in the towers rather than evaporation, but this didn't change
the modeling procedure much.  Also, we didn't account for the thermal
effects of the air stratification, but given more time, we might have been
able to use the technique of splitting each zone into a few horizontal
isothermal slices.

Our method for modeling this system was:
    - Model the systems as 100% outside air VAV.
    - Create an hourly report for each system on the cfm required to meet
space conditions
    - Using the Sherman-Grimsrud algorithm, we calculated the maximum
available wind+buoyancy driven flow on an hourly basis(may be a stretch on
the intent of the algorithm)
    - Comparing the maximum available to the hourly requirements, we found
that we would not need mechanical ventilation for about 85% of the year.
This was fed back into the eQuest model as a global parameter to derate the
supply fan kW accordingly.

This method was a bit of a hack to get the building modeled before the
deadline, so I'm sure the more creative individuals on the list can think
of a better method.  I believe the DOE2 engine is very close to being able
to model this out of the box.  The S-G algorithm is already available for
natural ventilation, but it is not automatically controllable as would be
our case with automatic dampers.  In a real project, CFD would probably be
used for design but would be overkill for an hourly/subhourly simulation.
I believe that an empirically based model which can capture the
wind+buoyancy effects like S-G is ultimately the way to go for an annual
simulation.

We did use eQuest to model the PV.  In fact, it was hugely helpful to have
this feature when we ran our final cost optimization algorithms.

Aaron

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Chalfoun, Nader V - (chalfoun)" <chalfoun at email.arizona.edu>
To: Nicholas Caton <ncaton at catonenergy.com>, "
equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org" <equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>
Cc: "Sloat, Cara" <Cara.Sloat at wspgroup.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 15:51:12 +0000
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report

This is the most exciting news about the eQUEST community that I heard this
year.  Bravo to all the team members. I love the poster its content and its
design, and mostly our proud eQUEST team.


Can we have more information about the simulation details? like for each
strategy individually... I am particularly interested in the simulation of
the down-draft evaporative cooling systems with
the underslab air-delivery simulation technique in eQUEST.


Did you use eQUEST to simulate the PV sizing and contribution or you used
external simulation technique?


Would you share these details with us?


CONGRATULATIONS for a great effort


Nader

Check my new online energy courses http://www.hed-online.com/
--------------------------------------------
*Nader V. Chalfoun*, Ph.D., LEED© AP, CEA
Professor of Architecture and Environmental Sciences
Director: The House Energy Doctor Program http://capla.arizona.edu/hed/
https://www.facebook.com/houseenrgydoctor
Chair: Master of Science in Architecture Program
Coordinator: Environmental Education Ph.D. Minor
Faculty: Arid Lands Resource Sciences GIDP
Faculty: Global Change Ph.D. Minor
Address:  University of Arizona
               College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture
               1040 N. Olive St., Tucson, AZ 85721, U.S.A.
               Phone: (520)621-6751    Fax: (520)621-8700
------------------------------
*From:* Equest-users <equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org> on behalf
of Nicholas Caton <ncaton at catonenergy.com>
*Sent:* Tuesday, November 10, 2015 8:52 PM
*To:* equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
*Cc:* Sloat, Cara
*Subject:* [Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report


This year at the 2015 ASHRAE Energy Modeling Conference, there was a
“Lowdown Showdown” design competition.  Voluntary teams representing most
commercial energy simulation software packages & platforms tried to tackle
a relatively open design challenge to bring a building (of our own design)
down to net-zero energy.  The relatively small team representing
eQUEST/DOE-2 won an award by popular vote for the “Most Creative” design
solution!



The eQUEST team had 5 members (all CC’ed on this email thread) - you may
recognize a few as frequent contributors over these mailing lists:

·       Aaron Powers

·       Cara Sloat

·       Pasha Korber-Gonzales

·       Chris Jones

·       Nick Caton



I served as ‘coach’ for the team, and in that context am very proud to
share some new information concerning our collaborative efforts, design
process, and the final ‘product’ with the greater eQUEST-users community.
Those who were able to attend the conference experienced a live
presentation by representatives for the teams and a panel discussion with
all of the coaches to field questions/challenges from the audience, but
time was quite constrained.  This this is an opportunity to share with
those who could not attend and to convey/discuss things in more detail.



Attached is a ‘poster’ that covers much of the information we presented for
the project, and outlines the process we followed over the ~9 weeks we had
to collaborate.  We accomplished a great deal in the time we had, in spite
of a late start due to some difficulties in assembling the minimum # of
members required.  The team met weekly via VOIP calls (Skype/join.me) to
coordinate efforts, present individual findings, and to simply share
knowledge and relate/compare experiences.  As a group, each individual
identified and contributed challenges/problems/systems of interest early
on, and as a group we made it a goal to incorporate those elements into our
project along the way.  This ‘spirit’ to tackle new/interesting issues and
to avoid “easy/obvious” solutions lead to some interesting design decisions
along the way!



I initially thought I would make it a personal goal to ensure the project
would be engaging, informative, and rewarding for every participant, but I
learned that with the right group that is going to happen anyway!  My only
regret is that more of my friends and colleagues in the industry did not
get to participate.  I sincerely hope when the next opportunity comes
along, more individuals from this community will take the initiative to
participate – it was very much worth our time!



If anybody would like to learn more or ask questions, please freely reply
to this email thread!



Kind regards,



~Nick



*NICK CATON, P.E.*
*Owner*



*Caton Energy Consulting*
  306 N Ferrel

  Olathe, KS  66061

  office:  785.410.3317

www.catonenergy.com
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