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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_MailEndCompose"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">Thanks for your kind words Nader!</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">Further to the PV query – I believe with all other associated inputs set statically, the PV array size was permitted to vary via an #PA-based expression for the ‘quantity of inverters’ input, within the optimization simulations. The results in isolation of this measure were as expected pretty linear in every regard, and if we were performing a similar optimization study I think you could rely on any number of external tools like RETscreen to inform such contribution and reduce your variable count.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">(Apologies if you’re hearing from me twice Nader – I’ve actually been away from regular internet access for the past week and am not sure what if anything has left my outbox.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">~Nick</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#002060">NICK CATON, P.E.</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><br></span><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#561782">Owner</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#561782"> </span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#561782">Caton Energy Consulting</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><br></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> 306 N Ferrel</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> Olathe, KS 66061</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> office: 785.410.3317</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="www.catonenergy.com"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#561782">www.catonenergy.com</span></a><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Equest-users [mailto:<a href="mailto:equest-users-bounces@lists.onebuilding.org">equest-users-bounces@lists.onebuilding.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Aaron Powers<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 12, 2015 9:03 AM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org">equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> [Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><div><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">Nader,</p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">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.<br><br>Our method for modeling this system was:<br> - Model the systems as 100% outside air VAV.<br> - Create an hourly report for each system on the cfm required to meet space conditions<br> - 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> - 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>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.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">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. </p></div><p class="MsoNormal">Aaron</p><div><div><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: "Chalfoun, Nader V - (chalfoun)" <<a href="mailto:chalfoun@email.arizona.edu" target="_blank">chalfoun@email.arizona.edu</a>><br>To: Nicholas Caton <<a href="mailto:ncaton@catonenergy.com" target="_blank">ncaton@catonenergy.com</a>>, "<a href="mailto:equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org" target="_blank">equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org</a>" <<a href="mailto:equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org" target="_blank">equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org</a>><br>Cc: "Sloat, Cara" <<a href="mailto:Cara.Sloat@wspgroup.com" target="_blank">Cara.Sloat@wspgroup.com</a>><br>Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 15:51:12 +0000<br>Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report</p><div><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">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.</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">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.</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Did you use eQUEST to simulate the PV sizing and contribution or you used external simulation technique?</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Would you share these details with us?</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">CONGRATULATIONS for a great effort </span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p><div><div name="divtagdefaultwrapper"><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black">Nader<br> <br>Check my new online energy courses <a href="http://www.hed-online.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hed-online.com/</a><br>--------------------------------------------<br></span><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:#999999">Nader V. Chalfoun</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:#999999">, Ph.D., LEED© AP, CEA<br></span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black">Professor of Architecture and Environmental Sciences<br>Director: The House Energy Doctor Program <a href="http://capla.arizona.edu/hed/" target="_blank">http://capla.arizona.edu/hed/</a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/houseenrgydoctor" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">https://www.facebook.com/houseenrgydoctor</span></a><br></span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black">Chair: Master of Science in Architecture Program<br>Coordinator: Environmental Education Ph.D. Minor<br>Faculty: Arid Lands Resource Sciences GIDP<br>Faculty: Global Change Ph.D. Minor<br>Address: University of Arizona<br> College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture<br> 1040 N. Olive St., Tucson, AZ 85721, U.S.A.<br> Phone: <a href="tel:%28520%29621-6751" target="_blank">(520)621-6751</a> Fax: <a href="tel:%28520%29621-8700" target="_blank">(520)621-8700</a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black"></span></p></div></div></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121"><hr size="3" width="98%" align="center"></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> Equest-users <<a href="mailto:equest-users-bounces@lists.onebuilding.org" target="_blank">equest-users-bounces@lists.onebuilding.org</a>> on behalf of Nicholas Caton <<a href="mailto:ncaton@catonenergy.com" target="_blank">ncaton@catonenergy.com</a>><br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, November 10, 2015 8:52 PM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org" target="_blank">equest-users@lists.onebuilding.org</a><br><b>Cc:</b> Sloat, Cara<br><b>Subject:</b> [Equest-users] Team eQUEST: Lowdown Showdown Report</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121"> </span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121"> </span></p></div></div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">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! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">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:</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:Symbol;color:#212121">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;color:#212121"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121">Aaron Powers</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:Symbol;color:#212121">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;color:#212121"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121">Cara Sloat </span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:Symbol;color:#212121">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;color:#212121"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121">Pasha Korber-Gonzales</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:Symbol;color:#212121">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;color:#212121"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121">Chris Jones</span></p><p style="background:white"><span style="font-family:Symbol;color:#212121">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;color:#212121"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#212121">Nick Caton</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">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.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">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! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">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! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">If anybody would like to learn more or ask questions, please freely reply to this email thread!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">Kind regards,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121">~Nick</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#002060">NICK CATON, P.E.</span></b><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><br></span><b><span style="color:#561782">Owner</span></b><span style="color:#212121"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="color:#561782"> </span></b><span style="color:#212121"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#561782">Caton Energy Consulting</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><br></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> 306 N Ferrel</span><span style="color:#212121"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> Olathe, KS 66061</span><span style="color:#212121"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1f497d"> office: <a href="tel:785.410.3317" target="_blank">785.410.3317</a></span><span style="color:#212121"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#561782"><a href="http://www.catonenergy.com" target="_blank"><span style="color:#561782">www.catonenergy.com</span></a></span><span style="color:#212121"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>