<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Verdana;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Arial Black";
panose-1:2 11 10 4 2 1 2 2 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph
{mso-style-priority:34;
margin-top:0cm;
margin-right:0cm;
margin-bottom:0cm;
margin-left:36.0pt;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:#366092;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
span.EmailStyle20
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:black;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:1488209380;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-783642266 747153884 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
ol
{margin-bottom:0cm;}
ul
{margin-bottom:0cm;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="FR-CA" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Congratulations on the award and a very impressive work!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">I’m amazed by the results of your mutli-variable optimization algorithms. I wouldn’t have thought that doing so would improve the optimization effort by 20%, in comparison to a standard
optimization process. I’m also intrigued in how you could achieve 60 000 runs overnight on a single PC. Did you use parametric runs in eQUEST or you worked directly via DOE-2? I’m not quite familiar with programing parametric runs or the like directly in DOE-2
so I’m not sure how you di dit but would sure like to know how.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Thanks for sharing the results of your experience, it sure looked like one amazing project.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" style="width:100.0%;border-collapse:collapse">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="35" style="width:26.25pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#366092"><img width="34" height="31" id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D11C5B.263FC490"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#366092"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td valign="top" style="padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#3F3F3F">Patrick</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#366092"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#3F3F3F">Lapierre</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#7D7D7D">_ing.</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#366092"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#A5A5A5">plapierre@bpa.ca<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BFBFBF"> </span><span style="color:#366092;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="FR">De :</span></b><span lang="FR"> Equest-users [mailto:equest-users-bounces@lists.onebuilding.org]
<b>De la part de</b> Nicholas Caton<br>
<b>Envoyé :</b> 10 novembre 2015 22:53<br>
<b>À :</b> equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org<br>
<b>Cc :</b> Sloat, Cara <Cara.Sloat@wspgroup.com><br>
<b>Objet :</b> [Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">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!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">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:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN-US">Aaron Powers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN-US">Cara Sloat <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN-US">Pasha Korber-Gonzales<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN-US">Chris Jones<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang="EN-US">Nick Caton<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">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">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! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">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! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">If anybody would like to learn more or ask questions, please freely reply to this email thread!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Kind regards,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">~Nick<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#002060">NICK CATON, P.E.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><br>
</span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#561782">Owner</span></b><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#561782"> </span></b><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#561782">Caton Energy Consulting</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><br>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D"> 306 N Ferrel</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D"> Olathe, KS 66061</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D"> office: 785.410.3317</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#561782"><a href="www.catonenergy.com"><span style="color:#561782">www.catonenergy.com</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>