<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Joe,<br><br></div>I think I can answer a few of your questions.<br><br></div>1. Almost everything was modeled out of the box, with the exception of the passive down-draft system as you mentioned. Our method for modeling this system was:<br></div> - Model the systems as 100% outside air VAV.<br></div> - Create an hourly report for each system on the cfm required to meet space conditions<br></div> - 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)<br></div> - 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.<br><br></div>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.<br><br></div>3. The 3D plot shows the building consumption on the z axis vs the window to wall ratio and shading coefficient on the x and y axes. We chose these because they are two of the more interactive variables in the design. I completely agree about the runtime. I believe that scientific inquiry always goes in two directions: either to answer problems on a massive scale or to answer problems on the microscopic scale (e.g. the discovery of black holes and the electron in the 20th century). It seems that the building simulation community has fully embraced the challenge of the microscopic problem by adding more and more detail to models and simulation programs but has not fully embraced the challenge of the large scale problem. This is where I think that "legacy" tools like DOE2 can play a huge role since we don't shy away from large problems due to a long run time or long model creation time.<br><br></div><div>Aaron<br></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: Joe Huang <<a href="mailto:yjhuang@whiteboxtechnologies.com" target="_blank">yjhuang@whiteboxtechnologies.com</a>><br>To: <a href="mailto:equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org" target="_blank">equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org</a><br>Cc: <br>Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 07:46:32 -0800<br>Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report<br>
Nick, Aaron, Cara, Pasha, Chris, <br>
<br>
I'd like to add my congratulations to those of others for your great
work at the Lowdown Showdown. It's very impressive what your team
was able to achieve on a strictly voluntary basis, and shows how
much innovative modeling can be done with eQUEST/DOE-2 .<br>
<br>
For my personal curiosity, I'd like to ask the team:<br>
(1) how much of your work was done using eQUEST "out of the box",
and how much of it tweaking the underlying DOE-2.2 engine? This
question applies mostly to the modeling of low-energy HVAC
strategies, esp. the solar chimneys.<br>
(2) what was the motivation to use Radiance to calculate daylighting
instead of the native daylighting capabilities in DOE-2? (this is
not meant as a challenge - I simply have never looked into the
strengths/weaknesses of the DOE-2 daylighting calculation)<br>
(3) great to see the multi-variant analysis of 60,000 runs,
especially the colorful 3-D surface plot :-) What were the two
axes being plotted? There are those who dismiss slow runtimes as
just an annoyance, but my experience is that fast runtimes open up
whole new ways of analysis. When DOE-2 runtimes got down to a few
seconds, I started doing a lot more experimental design.<br>
<br>
I also suggest that you send your post to BLDG-SIM to get more
distribution, especially among readers less familiar with eQUEST.<br>
<br>
Once again, congrats!<br>
<br>
Joe<br>
<pre cols="72">Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 205A
Moraga CA 94556
<a href="mailto:yjhuang@whiteboxtechnologies.com" target="_blank">yjhuang@whiteboxtechnologies.com</a>
<a href="http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com" target="_blank">http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com</a> for simulation-ready weather data
<a href="http://www.whiteboxtechnologies.com" target="_blank">http://www.whiteboxtechnologies.com</a>
(o) <a href="tel:%28925%29388-0265" value="+19253880265" target="_blank">(925)388-0265</a>
(c) <a href="tel:%28510%29928-2683" value="+15109282683" target="_blank">(510)928-2683</a>
"building energy simulations at your fingertips"
</pre>
<div>On 11/10/2015 7:52 PM, Nicholas Caton
wrote:<br>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal">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! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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:</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Aaron
Powers</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Cara
Sloat </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Pasha
Korber-Gonzales</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Chris
Jones</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Nick
Caton</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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/<a href="http://join.me" target="_blank">join.me</a>)
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! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If anybody would like to learn more or ask
questions, please freely reply to this email thread!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kind regards,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">~Nick</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(0,32,96)">NICK CATON, P.E.</span></b><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><br>
</span><b><span style="color:rgb(86,23,130)">Owner</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:rgb(86,23,130)"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(86,23,130)">Caton Energy
Consulting</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> 306 N
Ferrel</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> Olathe, KS 66061</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> office:
<a href="tel:785.410.3317" value="+17854103317" target="_blank">785.410.3317</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(86,23,130)"><a href="http://www.catonenergy.com" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(86,23,130)"></span></a><a href="http://www.catonenergy.com" target="_blank">www.catonenergy.com</a></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>