Hi,
Does anybody know where can I find a comparison of energy modeling in eQuest and Trace700? Total energy consumption comparison of the same building or something similar, so that we can have an idea on how certain is each model. It would be really helpful.
Thanks a lot.
Catalina Caballero, AIA. Assoc., LEED GA.
A while back, I was contracted to compare a TRACE model and an eQUEST model done on the same building by two contractors and find why the results were so different. Of course, this was for energy analysis because eQUEST does not officially calculate loads (and doesn't compare to TRACE in it's load calculations)
I was able to pinpoint a few major differences, and when making these things equal, the results ended up being incredibly close.
In my opinion, both software tools can provide a good deal of accuracy, but this is entirely based on the inputs. If the inputs are identical - or near identical - the results were the same when I tested it.
Now, TRACE does calculate loads to a much greater degree than eQUEST - so load sensitive items might cause differences (for instance a really thick, high density concrete wall).
Keep in mind that they both use many of the same algorithms to calculate energy. For instance, the daylighting algorithms are near identical.