[Equest-users] Parametric Run for Fan Cycling on Demand

[Brian Fountain]

My experience with parametric runs, conversely, has been mostly positive.  I will use them whenever possible in that they allow me to make a change to the base model that gets carried through all of my “what if?” runs.  (I am too forgetful to remember to make the same change all the way back through my “save as”-es.)

A couple of suggestions I find helpful with parametric runs:

  1.  The parametric run changes are saved in the .prd text file.  While the format is not intuitive, once you are used to it, you can edit the .prd to replicate or copy and modify parametric runs more easily. (Remembering to back up of course.)
  2.  When a parametric run simulates, a .inp is created for it – sometimes I will ‘file compare’ the .inp files to be sure that the changes I expect are being made.  You can also “file open” .inp files in eQUEST and look at this modified model in the main eQUEST interface to help troubleshoot.  Similarly, file-comparing the .sim file between parametric runs can sometimes provide interesting insights.
  3.  I used to find the -parm.csv files that eQUEST creates to be a useful, fixed format summary of the model information that was helpful to paste into a spreadsheet for results extraction/summarization – to the extent that I would create a dummy parametric run just to get my output in that format.

Cheers,
Brian

From: PKConsulting <pasha.pkconsulting at gmail.com>
Sent: June 9, 2025 8:01 AM
To: Brian Fountain <Brian.Fountain at sa-footprint.com>
Cc: Ahmad Fraij <fraij at yahoo.com>; equest-users at onebuilding.org
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Parametric Run for Fan Cycling on Demand

CAUTION: This message originated from outside Smith + Andersen
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Great info from Brian.

Ahmad- I honestly haven’t ever been really successful when trying to adjust things in parametric runs-  for me, the best approach has been to “save as” a copy of my file and make my changes in the full interface and then compare my results that way.  I pull out my results into my own spreadsheet and review my comparisons that way.


Pasha
Ph: 308-763-1593


On Jun 6, 2025, at 6:57 AM, Brian Fountain via Equest-users <equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>> wrote:

Your strategy for showing the impact of cycling fans on and off using the parametric run and the indoor fan mode keyword is appropriate.  There appear to be a few things going on in the model that are combining to give the results you are seeing.  To begin with, please note that when the indoor fan mode is set to intermittent, outdoor air for ventilation is only supplied when the fan is running.  The internal gains in the model are relatively high – especially the lighting at 2 W/ft² as well as the people load.  The R23 roof is pretty good, minimal glazing.  So, a very large portion of the heating for this model is going to conditioning the outdoor air.  By switching the fans to ‘intermittent’, you are removing most of this outdoor air through the heating season and the fans are only being called on for heating beyond what is covered by the internal gains for a relatively small number of hours.

Other notes – the 70% combustion efficiency on the RTUs seems low to me.

I hope this is helpful.

Brian

From: Equest-users <equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>> On Behalf Of Ahmad Fraij via Equest-users
Sent: June 5, 2025 6:33 PM
To: BldgSim Mailing List <bldg-sim at onebuilding.org<mailto:bldg-sim at onebuilding.org>>; PKConsulting via Equest-users <equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>>; equest-users at onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at onebuilding.org>
Subject: [Equest-users] Parametric Run for Fan Cycling on Demand

CAUTION: This message originated from outside Smith + Andersen
________________________________
Hello All,

I am trying to add a parametric run to make the supply fan cycle based on cooling and heating demands but when I set up the parametric run as per the screenshot below and run simulation, all the space heating energy consumption disappear from the report as there is no heating system. So, am I setting up the correct parametric run as below or I am missing something? I have also attached the Equest files for this project if anyone can help please. Thank you

<image001.png>
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