I am currently testing out Hevacomp with a 30 day trial. I have been
tinkering with it for about 3-4 days now. The cad/geometry input is much
easier and faster than with equest. Window and door placement is nice as
well. It uses the cad interface for most of the model creation, which is
very intuitive. I have not gotten into the actual calculations and system
creation yet, so I will have to get back to you on the compliance
documentation and such... It seems like a nice software, but it is broken
up into two modules (a designer and a simulator), which for me can get kind
of confusing/overwhelming. One other cool thing about the Hevacomp package
is that it has an optional CFD package that works off of the model you
create. I will let you know how the rest of my trial period goes. As of
now, I am not convinced that the software is worth the initial and annual
costs of substituting for a free package like equest.
Other packages out there that claim built-in ASHRAE 90.1 compliance tools
are TRACE and HAP (both mfr. created, Trane and Carrier, respectively). I
have tried Trace a bit and don't like it. I don't know anything about HAP.
One other ASHRAE related item I would like to add to this discussion is,
compliance with ASHRAE 62.1. eQUEST has either per area or per person auto
ventilation calcs, but 62.1 requires a combination. The folks at Bentley
(who created Hevacomp) claim that they will include this in their April
release, and TRACE and HAP already have it. It would be nice if equest
could include this as well.
If equest could add auto-compliance with both of these ASHRAE Standards I
think there would be alot of satisfied simulators out there. If not, I
would start to fear that the creators have "given up on keeping up", which
will force me to find something new. These standards (driven by LEED,
etc...) have become so important in our designs that having a software tool
that simulates energy usage, verifies compliance with 90.1 and calculates
ventilation requirements per 62.1 are becoming major assets.
Michael Bejrowski
