[Virtual-sim] IES Computer Configurations...

[IES Technical Support]

Hi Josh,

 

Yes, the VE is fully compatible with Windows 7... we use it in-house on
many of our PCs.

 

15 minutes isn't what we'd consider a long time for a simulation at all.
You have to remember that eQuest runs only an hourly simulation, and
forgive me here because I'm not on to bash anyone else's products, it's
got a job to do and it does it, a relatively simple hourly simulation at
that.  The eQuest simulation has only one-way interaction between the
determination of space loads and the systems response to it for each
one-hour time step. The VE capability is more on par with Energy Plus if
you want to think about comparative programs.  You might like to do a
speed comparison between a model in EnergyPlus and VE... I think the VE
would generally be faster.

 

If it's simple loads you are looking for then perhaps the simulation
engine isn't what you should be using - the ASHRAE loads tool may be
more appropriate and a heck of a lot quicker if that's your main
concern.

 

I'm more concerned with the crashes than the "not responding" as this
just indicates that the program is in the middle of some intensive
calculations (we're looking at improving this actually).  The crashes
would indicate that there's something wrong with the model or that
there's been a possible interrupt while writing to a file.  One thing I
always recommend is to run the project on a local hard drive rather than
a network location as you can't always rely on time-outs not occurring
(it's not a program like MS Word... it's always writing to the hard
drive during a simulation).

 

I hope that's helped a little.

 

IES Technical Support

 

From: virtual-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:virtual-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Josh
Greenfield
Sent: 06 August 2010 20:51
To: virtual-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Virtual-sim] IES Computer Configurations...

 

IES-VE users:

 

I was curious if anyone had 'ideal' computer configuration suggestions
to run IES as optimum as possible.  We are currently running IES on a
Windows 7 HP laptop (3.1 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor w/ 3 Gb RAM).
Is IES fully compatible with Windows 7?  We are having a lot of crashes
and long hang-ups (the Windows hour-glass and "Not Responding" messages)
while using IES at this configuration.  A typical simulation takes
approximately 15 minutes for a medium-sized building.  While 15 minutes
for this program might be standard analysis time for IES, I guess I'm
just used to eQUEST where the simulation time would be 15
seconds...granted they are very different programs in the sense of GUI
and analysis schemes.  How long are some of your IES simulations taking
to run?  Are there any hidden "engines" running in the background that
we just weren't told we have to disable or anything?  Any thoughts or
suggestions or tricks are greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

 


Josh Greenfield, PE, REP, LEED AP
Energy Services Manager
Associate Vice President
312.242.6392 Direct
jgreenfield at primerachicago.com
<blocked::mailto:jgreenfield at primerachicago.com> 

 
Primera Engineers, Ltd.
100 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 700
Chicago, IL 60606
312.606.0910 Main
312.606.0415 Fax
http://www.primerachicago.com <http://www.primerachicago.com> 

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