VRF and LEED Certification

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Based off of reviewing past archives on variable refrigerant flow, Trace
700 and Energy Pro appear to be the only 2 current programs that can
accurately model a VRF system.

Has anyone had any success modeling a VRF system for a LEED project
using Trace 700 or Energy Pro? If yes, do you have a preference on
which program is more user-friendly for this application and were there
any challenges, you would care to share, encountered while modeling this
type of system for LEED.

Any responses would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Jim

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Jim -
Unfortunately I don't yet have experience in modeling VRF systems, but I have some info... At the moment, the EnergyPro package would be the one to use for VRF. Both of the major VRF manufacturers do stand behind the EnergyPro algorithm, and performance curves from current VRF equipment are used in that software. You'll likely find it more cumbersome than TRACE, but TRACE's VRF system has not really been validated to my knowledge (anyone from CDS, please clarify if I'm mistaken).

eQUEST developer's do plan to introduce VRF in a version in the near future, but I haven't heard any recent updates on the schedule for that.

Scott Hackel

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