Compliments everyone,
Please I am currently working on a Masters degree project titled "Energy
Performance and Carbon Footprint of Church Buildings in Nigeria."
The objectives of the project are:
1. Assess the energy consumption of major church buildings.
2. Determine the factors responsible for their current energy performance.
3. Estimate some of the energy performance indices in church buildings
(e.g. EEI, EPI, etc.).
4. Determine the quantities of energy usage and their consumption patterns
within the location of the churches (e.g. unit energy for lighting,
cooling, etc.).
5. Evaluate the carbon footprint of the church buildings.
I initially picked eQUEST thinking the project requires energy simulation
but one of the energy consultants here said it may not require that.
I am currently not familiar with any building software but I can learn
really fast if the project requires that I use one by your assessment of
the above objectives.
I will appreciate if there are other more suitable softwares for this kind
of project you can recommend, especially simpler and purpose-built options.
Also, I will appreciate if you can recommend a simple software for
calculating carbon footprint outside online carbon footprint calculators.
I will really appreciate your input.
Thank you very much.
Effiong Edentekhe
Effiong,
Here is my reaction to your questions:
1) While it's true you might not need simulations to determine the energy usage of church
buildings in Nigeria, simulations are very helpful in understanding the reasons behind
that energy usage.? For example, if you just wanted to know? how much energy church
buildings in Nigeria used, you can simply survey a number of them and get their energy
bills. But then what?? However, if you used simulations you can determine the factors for
that energy use and, understand how much energy can be saved with changes in operations
and building construction, normalize for building size and climate to get an EEI, etc.
2)? I would recommend using eQUEST because it has the most easy to use Graphical User
Interface of all the programs I've seen, and of course, is free of charge. However, be
aware that eQUEST works only in Inch-Pound (IP) units rather than metric SI, so be
prepared to do a lot of conversions in creating your building model.
3) I'm not aware of any purpose-built software for calculating carbon footprint, but you
should be able to do that with the hourly reports from eQUEST for energy usage by fuel
type, and figuring out the fuel-to-electricity conversion in your area.
Joe
Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 205A
Moraga CA 94556
yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com for simulation-ready weather data
(o) (925)388-0265
(c) (510)928-2683
"building energy simulations at your fingertips"
Thank you very much Mr. Joe for your response to my questions. I have taken
note of all that you have recommended.
I am grateful and will work with that.
Please I will like to ask further if there's a document or anything that
can give me the comprehensive information I will need to get from the
church buildings in order to successfully carry out the energy simulation
on eQUEST?
I have a questionnaire already prepared for the survey of the chosen church
buildings but I want to make sure I am not leaving any information out so I
don't have to start going back to the churches a second time. I will really
appreciate your help with this.
If I have further questions or encounter any difficulty while using the
software, I will let you know.
Thank you again.
Effiong Edentekhe
+2348032327091
On Jan 16, 2018 2:24 AM, "Joe Huang via Equest-users"