Nick,
The SD Wizard allows prefixes and/or suffixes to be assigned to building components. This could be useful if the model has a campus of multiple buildings and you use a prefix or suffix to identify which building the component is associated with. The entries are at the end of the last screen (Screen 41).
Another possible reason to start with the SD Wizard is when you don't know much about the building and you are going to use nearly all of the program defaults anyway and you don't have much time. For example, if you have a meeting in less than an hour where the boss needs some numbers, there are simply fewer screens to go through in the SD Wizard than in the DD Wizard.
Personally I hardly ever use the SD Wizard. When I first started using eQUEST I started with the SD Wizard, then moved on to the DD Wizard, but I didn't see any benefit from starting in the SD Wizard. Unless it's a panic situation or I am dealing with a campus and want to use a prefix or suffix, I just start with the DD Wizard.
Keith Swartz, P.E., LEED AP
I normally start in the SD wizard only because it is the first
wizard and does what I need to do for the first floor. It does offer
around 40 screens where the DD wizard uses 25 per shell. I design
building systems from scratch and don't do any LEED work. I do lots of
energy consumption improvement work as well. But either way the
building is normally already defined by the actual building or by the
architect. My primary purpose initially is to get the building model in
and functioning ASAP. I auto-size everything and just deal with BDL
errors. SD will do this. Custom footprint, custom zones. Rarely will
I have a building that does not have a reason to use the DD wizard, so I
always end up there to add more shells and almost always to add more
HVAC systems. This is where I start and mostly finish flushing out the
finer details. Heat loss provides the initial data I need, ASHRAE 62.1
is next. Then a check on existing systems or the Architects
guesstimate. After that it is all negotiation.
Bruce Easterbrook P.Eng.