If you consider the whole world and not just the US, your short list
should definitely include the Passive House Planning Package, which is
the only software which can be used to design Certified Passive House
projects, which meet the voluntary Passive House Standard
(www.passivehouse.com). This building envelope efficiency standard is
the toughest in the world, but its adoption is growing exponentially
(way more than 12,000) because it has the lowest lifecycle costs. In
Europe production builders have adopted it, mass producing these super
building envelopes as affordable housing and commercial projects, too.
It has revolutionized the building industry in Europe, both products,
and means & methods. We've yet to beat it - the first Passive House
entered in the Solar Decathlon on our National Mall won (2007), then in
2009 there were two Passive house entries, and they took 1st & 2nd
place. Time to join them.

In 2008, I was one of the first 13 Certified Passive House Consultants
trained in the USA (www.passivehouse.us). The PHPP software has the
advantage of being an Excel spreadsheet, which makes the formulas used
basically open source, unlike most energy modeling software created in
the USA. This really cuts down on the garbage in, garbage out phenomena.
I've used Equest, Energy Plus, Energy 10, and many smaller brands of
energy modeling, and PHPP is the only one I've found that is truly
designed to handle everything one might want to do in an ultra-low
energy building. The certification process for consultants and buildings
is also the most rigorous I've ever encountered - leaves LEED in the
dust. The annual conference is the most intensive state-of-the-art
building science learning experience you'll find.

Christina Snyder