Hello everyone, I'm a new eQuest user and working on my first LEED project.
Fortunately and unfortunately, I am in charge of the energy modeling for the
project. We are a two-man company and don't have many resources or other
coworkers to turn to and figure things out collectively. Any help anyone can
provide would be of much help. I've structured the questions to be specific
and included background info and how I've implemented or believe I should
implement input into eQuest. Other difficulties will be addressed in
subsequent emails with similar structured questions. For your help I thank
you in advance.

Ashrae 90.1-2004 requires specific insulation values for the envelope:
exterior walls steel-framed walls, roof with above deck insulation and steel
joist floors.
-Exterior walls eQuest offers many steel frame options. Does it matter which
one is selected? I selected Metal Frame 2x4, 16 in. O.C. Project is in a
Zone 5b and exterior wall insulation requires Assembly Maximum of U-0.084
and Insulation Min. R-Value of R-13.0 + R-3.8 ci" I figured it was easier to
model by going with the maximum assembly with a U value of 0.084 and eQuest
allows exterior wall layer by layer customization where you can specify
final u value however no layer there has the steel frame selection. What do
you do? If I discard layer-by-layer and go with min insulation and selecting
the same Metal Frame 2x4 and try to select the required insulation values,
many R-values are not available or unknown if will be treated continuous or
not. How do you comply with the wall type and insulation requirements? My
guess is that it's best to select the construction required, i.e. for walls
Metal Frame 2x4 and then edit the calculated U-value of eWall
under constructions in the detailed mode and set the user default to the
0.084 however it defaults back and remains green color. How do you override
it? Should I add a custom insulation layer and set the R-value to whatever
it needs to be for final calcualted u-value to be the 0.084 I was seeking?
What's the right approach to meet compliance? These issues exist for the roof
construction as well.
-How is a roof with insulation entirely above deck specified? I've selected
Metal Frame 24 in o.c. and specified the exterior insulation as I assume
this is considered as above deck insulation.
Also roof reflectivity must be 0.3 for baseline and 0.55 for proposed
building. This cannot be specified thru the wizard since none of the
available roof colors have exact required values. I believe it's entered in
the detailed mode, under roof contruction, in the Ext. Color (absorp.) text
box by overriding the value. Is this correct?
-Steel joist floors. I don't see where this selection can be made.
Layer-by-layer does not have steel joist selection either.

Thanks again everyone,
Vince