Dear Sir,
I started working on?E-quest?for my thesis model in an attempt to simulate the effects of a green roof with different soil thickness and vegetation for Mumbai region (India) for my thesis. And I have a few queries regarding it:
1.?I wish to create a very simple 4 storied rectangular model building as a comparative model (file has been attached- MODULE1) but on running the?perform compliance analysis, it?gives an error
?''?Table look-up failed: A901-07_Envelope(1, 4) evaluating rule: Look up and default C-FACTOR for slabs.'' Also, when i go on Project and?site> site data properties, it?doesn't?accept the latitude and longitude and gives the same as an error.
Also please guide me the action report from where I can get the?Annual energy consumption( Since there is no electric utility and gas utility file rates?available here, can we get it in terms of unit, which can be multiplied with the rate and rate analysis can be found);?space load component( total building?load);?peak load component(total building load);?sensible cooling load & ?roof thermal transfer value?(RTTV )
2. Secondly, please guide me on how can one?add up layers?to just the top of this building of varying soil thickness and green cover ( I have the data on their?R-values and thickness) and simulate the same without having errors.
3.?Is there a way by which the?outside ambient temperature?of the building with green roof ( & its micro-climatic features) can be found?I basically need?the temperature variation in the top 3 meters of the building.
It will be really helpful for me if you could take out some time from your busy schedule and guide me for the above mentioned queries.?
Waiting for your reply in anticipation,?
Thanking you
Regards,
Charu Sharma
----- Forwarded Message -----
Sharma,
eQUEST is a program developed in the US, so its compliance rule set
might not work for locations outside of the US.
Or the rule set might be failing because it doesn't know the ASHRAE
climate region for your location (Mumbai).
I assume that you have a weather file for Mumbai. I recently created
last year a set of weather files for 38 Indian locations
for ISHRAE, so if you have any problems there, just give me a holler.
However, even if you get these practical problems resolved, I question
the logic of creating an ASHRAE-90 building as the
reference or comparison building for your study, which would set all the
building conditions to ASHRAE-90 requirements.
I would recommend that, instead, you create a reference building based
on India's ECBC, or if you don't think that's being
widely followed yet, on what you think are the typical construction and
operating conditions in Mumbai. I can also think
of several friends in India, even Mumbai, that I could recommend if you
need help.
It seems that you're thinking of modeling a green roof as an additional
soil layer. That's okay for starters, but if that's the
topic of your thesis, you should do a more careful job and incorporate
the following characteristics that makes a green
roof differ from just 20 cm of dirt on top: (1) changing soil moisture
depending on the time of year and rainfall, and (2) evaporatranspiration
that would keep the soil surface temperature low on sunny days.
This is not a marketing pitch, but in DOE-2.1E (an earlier version of
the DOE-2.2 engine in eQUEST) that I still use, there
is a feature called "Functions" that would allow users to insert
additional code in pseudo-Fortran to model processes
not covered by the program. If you're interested, we can discuss more
offline. Again, this is not a marketing pitch.
Joe
Joe Huang
My views on DOE2.1E:
I would support the development of an open source DOE2.1E so that it can be used for academic thesis research. See http://www.whiteboxtechnologies.com/ Click here for the Open Letter to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) on Open Source DOE-2.1E.)
DOE2.1E is particularly suited for academic thesis research for the following reasons:
1. It is a mature computer program that has been in extensive use for nearly 30 years. In fact, its latest proprietary version (DOE-2.2/eQUEST) is clearly the most widely used building energy simulation program in the US, if not the entire world.
2. Compared to other simulation programs, DOE-2 runs very quickly.
3. Since DOE-2.1E has been in effect abandoned by DOE and LBNL, its code can be made open source, and be freely available to students and researchers
4. DOE-2.1E contains a User Function option that allows users to develop additional modules or tweak existing calculations without having to change and recompile the existing source code. User Functions are ideal for student applications. Those that are promising can then later be incorporated into the source code itself.
Here are suggestions of how to fix DOE-2.1E so that it can be used for academic thesis research
1. Provide better documentation and examples of building models and User Functions.
2. Develop teaching materials on how to use the DOE-2 program, including how to extract hourly data, use macros to manage sensitivity analyses, and available open-source user interfaces.
3. Freeze the existing code since it is error-free and make it possible for research students to add/attach independent sub programs to expand the features of DOE-2.1E. The independent (or dependent) sub-programs that can be interfaced with DOE-2.1E should include PV-modules, GSHP, UFAD, DOAS, Radiant-ceilings and other features not included in DOE-2.1E. There could be multiple versions of each sub-program by different authors.
4. A DOE-2.1E committee should establish common output reports for them.
You can expect advanced program development using an open source DOE2.1E as the base launching pad from enterprising architects, engineers, academics in the areas renewable energy and also in testing new concepts.
The analogy is countries like socialist India and communist Russia & China opening up development to individual free enterprise. All the economies are now booming after 15 years. Their economies stagnated during the previous 50 years of the government doing everything.
Trane & Carrier have their own energy programs (TRACE and HAP) based on their equipment and systems. Other manufacturers can now create energy programs starting with the open source DOE2.1E and base it on their own equipment. These would be program developers that are involved with real buildings from design through construction and operation and understand the business.
Equipment consumes energy in buildings, not the envelope or people. Manufacturers would therefore have vested interest in making sure that their energy programs produced results that are close to the building in operation.
Agreed!
*Jeremiah D. Crossett*
I'm not able to install doe2.1 version on my windows7 64 bit, even after i changed to compatibility mode Windows XP
Please help
Regards,
Charu Sharma
It shows, runtime error 303
Please help!
Install windows virtual pc/XP mode. Windows 7 compatibility mode doesn't
work.
Shaun
Sharma,
Where did you get the install version of DOE-2.1E ? (you can reply by
e-mail if necessary :-)).
I've never had this problem, and I've been running DOE-2.1E on Window 7
64-bit for at least two years.
Joe
Joe Huang