Thoughts on EnerryPro Software

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Hi,

I'm a mechanical engineer working on a LEED project where we are
contemplating using a VRV/VRF system. I've seen several discussions
about equest and VRV/VRF; I know several people are working on this for
equest. Due to the pace of the project, and lack of time, I've
purchased EnergyPro software which models VRV/VRF right out of the box.

I have several questions and would appreciate your thoughts.

1) Does anyone have experience with EnergyPro? If so, do you find
it more or less flexible than eQuest?

2) Are there any advantages of EnergyPro over eQuest?

3) Are there any shortcomings of EnergyPro over eQuest?

4) Any other general thoughts or observations about energyPro.

Chris D. Mullinax, P.E., LEED AP, CEM

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Chris:

I am modeling a Mitsubishi VRF system in eQuest. I called the factory and they
put me in touch with their modeling expert. He informed me that they provided
the curves to EnergyPro for their systems, so if you use their product, you will
be good to go. Unfortunately, they have not developed the curves for eQuest.

Paul Diglio

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I tried using EnergyPro once and found it less flexible than eQUEST. EnergyPro does have the VRF curves available and is the easiest tool out of the box, but I found the scheduling was limited. In our case, we were modeling a change in use for a facility and had to consider different schedules. EnergyPro did not handle this well and wanted to use the same schedule in both cases. It turned out to be a deal breaker for our model and we ended up using a bin calculation that we could better control. If your system plays within the box that EnergyPro draws, you should be fine.

Mark Nieman, PE, CEM

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I've been using EnergyPro for a number of years, I've also been using eQUEST and EnergyPlus. I find that in straight forward projects including much of my LEED EA work EnergyPro is an easy to use tool. However, when I work on projects with greater complexities & detail I often turn to EnergyPlus or eQUEST which are not quite as easy to use.

I tend to bounce between all three programs because none of them meet all of my needs, but I usually start with EnergyPro because it is the easiest to use.

Wayne Seward, CEA, LEED AP BD&C,

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I would have to second Wayne and Chris, EnergyPro is very easy to use (especially if you have Trane Trace experience). I almost always prefer eQuest over EnergyPro, even with VRF projects, usually gleaning what I can from EnergyPro?s library of VRF performance data. With Daikin it?s much easier because part-load curves and other necessary data can be found in their engineering documentation online.

One thing I?ve found frustrating is that both our local Mitsubishi and Daikin reps don?t recommend using anything but EnergyPro (maybe too much room for user-input error?).

Matthew Higgins, ASHRAE-HBDP, LEED-AP

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Hi Chris - In short, EnergyPro v5 does VRF really well for CA Title 24 and for 90.1/LEED

Just follow the structure from the tutorial files. You have to make sure that if an evaporator servers two spaces with different occupancies then you have to split it into two zones and divvy the evaporator proportionately (currently their VRF can only do one occupancy per zone). I've found the LEED modules also helpful. Yes Paul is right in that Mitsubishi helped provide the calcs. You cannot, however, differentiate between a two-pipe or three pipe system (not sure how much it matters for our purposes)

If working on EnergyPro v4 you have to download a special patch created with Daikin. It was great before EP5 but I've found this patched v4 to be a bit buggy (and it messes with your regular non VRF calcs - so you have to reinstall to work on regular projects). If in CA, the patched v4 VRF version is not recognized for Title 24, but if you're outside CA you won't have that problem.

Keep in mind that EnergyPro v5 still has an issue with Exception G3.1.1(a) for non-predominant conditions over 20,000 SF - so keep that in mind. It's a known issue and is being worked on last time I checked.

FYI - VRF is the industry term - VRV is the same thing but for a specific manufacturer - think the word 'kleenex' (VRV) w.r.t tissues (VRF)

Christopher Zabaneh, LEED AP BD+C

Davis Langdon

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Hi Chris,

I know how to create the curves for any manufacturer's system in eQUEST. If
you want to consult with me re how to do this feel free to get in touch with
me.

Carol

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