Design Wizards

I have actually used eQuest in the past at my previous place of employment (KEMA) and found that this piece of software is actually pretty easy to pick up. Especially when you have the opportunity to work with a bunch of talented individual who specialize in high performance design and our proficient in the art of energy modeling. Working with these designers I got to see firsthand how this piece of software can helps designers find the best design solutions, and how I myself could potentially use it to verify my own design decisions. I am not an expert in eQuest (at least not yet), but I do see this software being a vital tool to any designers list of tools. Like I mentioned before it’s pretty easy to pick up. One of the reasons why eQuest seems to be such an easy program to use would have to be the design wizards used for inputting data. These design wizards help designers by creating guiding steps for data input. eQuest currently has two wizards one for schematic design and one for design development. As of right now I have only experimented with the schematic design wizard, which has worked great for my simple experiments.

Parametric Simulations

You might ask “how does eQuest work?” To answer that question it works by creating advance parametric simulations that helps designers figure out which design solution will work best. The design team uses eQuest to create baseline models that meet Title 24 (California) or Ashrae 90.1minimum energy standards for building designs. Then the modeler uses these baseline models as starting points for alternative design solutions. The designer applies energy efficient measures (such as, more efficient technologies, materials, or lighting strategies) to help find better alternatives. Once these parametric runs our done simulating the designers will be able to see detailed comparison studies of both the baseline models as well as the proposed alternative models. This will then give the designer and understanding of how the building will potentially perform and/ or further insight to what steps he/ she might possibly need to take.

Now the best way to succeed in high performance design is to know where you are going from the beginning.  So the use of energy modeling software such as eQuest should begin early on in the design process to help create better decisions on how to achieve the goal of high performance.

For more information on eQUEST check out the DOE2 website.

 
To help me continue with my pursuit for high performance, I have decided to begin my research by looking at what  tools are currently being used by industry professionals to evaluate performance. Many of these analytical tools I have worked with personally (at previous employment positions) while others I have only seen or heard of from people who have experience using them. My goal as a student of architecture will be to research and experiment with as many of these tools as possible. This will allow me to develop a greater understanding of what these tools can do and how I can potentially implement them into my design process. In future posts I will be going into further detail of what I have learned and possibly explaining how they can be utilized in conjunction with one another.

The following is a list of some of the current simulation tools being used by professionals:

Energy Analysis
eQuest the quick energy simulation tool
EnergyPro Title 24 compliant energy analysis software
EnergyPlus Energy analysis software
DesignBuilder Building simulation made easy

Performance Modeling
IES Virtual Environment Building Performance Modeling
Autodesk® Ecotect® Building Analysis for designers

Lighting & Daylighting
AGi32 Lighting design software
Radiance Synthetic imaging system
DAYSIM Dynamic Daylight Simulations
DIALux Light Building Software

Web Based Service 
Autodesk® Green Building Studio®