I am new to eQuest and spent a good part of yesterday modelling up my house
in Houston. I have gotten within 10% of my current energy usage with my
current model and was looking to start analyzing proposed improvements and
their energy consumption impacts. My first to try was a radiant barrier in
the attic and using the dropdown menus in the Schematic Wizard found it had
very close to no effect at all on my projected energy consumption. I ran
into a 2007 paper titled "Comparative Testing of the Combined Radiant
Barrier and Duct Models in the ESL?s Code-Compliant Simulation Model" by S.
Kim that suggested that DOE-2.1 documentation recommends modeling the
radiant barrier as an additional R-8.1 of insulation in the attic. Is this
effective at yielding similar results to a real life radiant barrier
installation?