First off, I will just say that I love my spreadsheets, but when it comes to energy calculations, my spreadsheets are, well, mine. I mean, have you ever tried to use someone else's spreadsheet?
Using someone else's spreadsheet is difficult. Ultimately, you end up making formatting changes and so on, and you may have trouble determining which are inputs and outputs. Then, there's the whole issue of "what equations did you use?" and "why did you use those equations?". Last, but not least, "Is your math even correct?"
Study: Energy model vs Spreadsheet
I did a simple energy model for a company using energy modeling software. I showed a 5 year payback on new windows (with a present day value of over $1 million). Since the cost of new windows was so expensive, the owner wanted several evaluations and hired two large (and expensive) consulting firms to do their own evaluations.
He got the results back. Consulting Firm A showed approximately a 5 year payback. Consulting Firm B showed a 99+ year payback.
Obviously, this shook things up a bit...
We got on the phone and discussed things and I asked what software both companies used to see if I could run some tests in each software. Company A used eQUEST (I had used TRACE 700). Company B had used a spreadsheet.
The owner and his crew asked to see the spreadsheet, and got a funny answer, "Sorry, it is proprietary".
I called "Bulls***!"
I don't care who the consulting firm is. Would you really trust a spreadsheet that you can't see? and even if you could see it, you probably wouldn't understand?
OR
Would you trust a software package that is crowd-sourced by tens of thousands of professionals around the world, AND you can run the simulation yourself?
The answer is obvious, but since the damage was done (by a spreadsheet that nobody had ever seen), a full investigation was ordered. Ultimately, we had to look over 1 years worth of data hour by hour. Then, we did hand calculations just "to be sure" the spreadsheet was wrong. It was a good exercise to data check the energy model, but was altogether unnecessary.
But I already know how to use spreadsheets...
Yes, this is why people might not make the leap into energy modeling: they are comfortable with what they already know.
However, learning to do simple energy models is fast and easy. And you can get free software.
Beyond what we have already discussed, energy modeling software is capable of much more advanced math than spreadsheets (try solving hourly differential equations in a spreadsheet!).
The hardest part is getting started, that's why we put together a getting started video series. It includes our super popular course "eQUEST quickstart", and beyond that it tells you where to get help and find other resources. It also teaches you things like how to check your results and other tidbits we've picked up over the years.
The course even talks about starting your own free-lance energy-modeling services (a lot of people make 6 figures working from home doing this!)
Right now the course is $99, but you get $200 worth of our other courses with it!
If you are interested in running your own energy models, check it out.
PS - If you aren't interested in advancing an energy simulation skillset and just read these emails for education, you probably have a desk job. Here's a blog I wrote on 7 investments for energy-modelers, but it applies to almost anyone who works on a computer!