in a nutshell

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Is there anyone that can introduce eQuest to me? I've heard about it being cumbersome, so I was turned off by that alone. I've heard rumors that there is no front-end, so you still need to get into the idf's to work the magic. Please share your daily routine with this program. BTW not looking for advantages, opinions, or who does what better, just a brief overview. Flowcharts screen captures welcome.

Be Sustainable -- Never let today use up tomorrow!.

Bobba_Fett's picture
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So I've been living behind the garbage dump of the Star Destroyer using Bentley v8 BIM software and Trace700. And I will always judge all energy modeling software against Trace700 since it is at the top of the game. It has everything incorporated into one package. I feel safe using Trace700. OK enough kudos to CDS. Now onto my next discovery. http://www.aec-projects.com/optimizing-building-designs/ It's free to sign-in and check out the video (beware raspberry shiny shirts). Anyways, our A's in our A/E-firm use Revit and have 2-licenses for MEP. This is what I envisioned my life to be a decade ago. WOW! Albiet no AHSRAE 62 VRP built in during the "Design" algorithms, it is something that can be entered directly in from ASHRAE 62 VRP Micrsoft Excel spreadsheet into each diffuser. Revit MEP then tallies and accounts for terminal devices airflow rates and such. Also, lighting LPD's, schedules, occupancy, etc...can be entered by your Designer and the Elec Designers and truly get us closer to integrated design. But that's where the Revit MEP exports to a gbxml or icf file and can be loaded into their Green Building Studio for direct energy cost impacts. From what I've found on the interwebz, this xml can also be imported into eQuest for completing the Energy demand and consumption calculations (please chime in if I don't have this right). And eventually get to a Energy Cost Budget/PRM Summary. I have yet to get into eQuest. I doubt this, but I wonder what data is brought in from the .xml to Trace700. I was realy impressed by the lighting simulations Revit 3ds brings to the table. Now if it can be brought back into Revit MEP for energy analysis and help in actually being able to model daylighting levels coupled with light level controls we could see significant savings from lighting. At this time, I do not model lighting with auto-dimmers or daylighting controls. Still looking for a simplified eQuest proceedure to get a clue as to what's on the other side of the galaxy..

Be Sustainable -- Never let today use up tomorrow!.

Bobba_Fett's picture
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Found this handy little nugget of information. http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/revit_gbs_equest_workflow.pdf

Be Sustainable -- Never let today use up tomorrow!.

Bobba_Fett's picture
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Well, yes and no. We are offering better, there will soon be a simple equest training on this website. For people who want to get started with the software. It really breaks it down. Stay Posted!
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Bob
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eQUEST UserLEED AP BD+CTRACE 700 User
Joined: 2010-06-30
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So is there like a abbreviated, layman's terms proceedure with eQuest from Start-End? Screen shots of the work environment?

Be Sustainable -- Never let today use up tomorrow!.

Bobba_Fett's picture
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Equest isn't that difficult unless you really get into it. Are you aware of the different types of wizards that come with it? The DD wizard, SD wizard, EEM wizard?

Before you EVER get involved in the detailed interface, you need to be familiar with the wizards.

Also, you are referring to a .idf file, but isn't that energy-plus? That is the software that has no front end (well no really good front end)

The coolest part about equest is that you can EASILY draw up a building, or even better - import the .dwg file.

Emmi's picture
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