As 2011 comes to an end we thought we could do at least one cliche looking back list.  Our forum continues to be a great learning resource for energy modelers.  There are a lot of great discussions and knowledge dumps going on.  I'd encourage all Energy-Models users to check it out.  Here are the top 10 most popular forum entries of 2011. 

When it comes to energy, I suppose we are all hypocrites at some point. I mean, look at Al Gore flying around in a private jet. Of course, Al Gore isn't exaclty going to come clean on his hypocrisy. But, that's because he wouldn't make millions on his powerpoints movies.

Anyway we here at energy-models.com are dishing out the dirt. Do you have a confession? Please comment!

This is what got us started: here's an interesting forum post we had from a very zealous but graciously honest energy-modeler:

I have to be 100% honest here. I have a very general lust for sports cars but more specifically for older American...

Can you imagine hiring a Swahili translator without knowing the first thing about Swahili? What if a fake translator claimed to be an expert and even spoke a few words of Swahili to convince you of his expertise? How would you know he was lying? Likely, you wouldn't. And by the time you found out he was lying, you're being eaten by cannibals in the Congo (and no, your contract is not going to protect you!). If only you had taken a course on Swahili, you would've easily recognized the fraud and wouldn't be in this mess.

Energy-modeling is the same way. A lot of people claim to be experts, but only speak enough of the lingo to get the contract, and then slap something together and claim that it's valid (I've supported hundreds of...

A common viewpoint for HVAC engineers is that eQuest is a great modeling tool but CANNOT be used for loads. Designers will typically use an additional tool more targeted to loads or may do all load calculations in a spreadsheet. However, it may surprise some, but eQUEST calculates loads before it calculates energy. In fact, eQUEST MUST calculate loads in order to calculate energy.

Consider the many pieces of information entered in an eQUEST model: Occupancy loads, equipment, geometry , envelope properties, and so on. These parameters determine building loads as well, and eQUEST does just that - quickly and accurately calculates building loads. The main problem with using eQUEST for loads is that the bulk of the reporting...