Many users would be glad to know that setting up the building envelope, heat transfer surfaces, and light transfer areas completed a building. However, the building operation is equally as important, or even more important than the building envelope.
eQUEST requires a building schedule. In the DD wizard, users define the open and close times for the seven days of the week, plus holidays. The default schedules occur in many buildings and are good starting points when the actual operating times are unknown.
After the operating schedule is determined, users must divide the building into individual space types, or spaces with common loads, such as offices, classrooms, restrooms, etc. In eQUEST, these spaces are defined as total percentage of the square footage, and are assigned to locations in the building. The wizards allows prioritization of assigned locations, such as perimeter, first floor, and core locations through the utilization of check boxes. Users must also specify the maximum occupancy and maximum ventilation for each space types. These values will default to standard values when selecting an area type. Keep in mind that the occupancy profiles may be edited to a certain extent by clicking the “...” button at the bottom of certain wizard screens.
Once space types are entered and priority assignments given, the DD wizard allows further specification in the form of zone groups.
Zone groups share the following properties:
-Common percentages of space types -Common system assignments
The DD wizard allows customization of zone groups, as well as the ability to create new zone groups. Users assign/reassign zones by left clicking on a particular zone and selecting, “assign zone to other group” and then selecting the target. Please note that many users must come back to the zone groups screen, especially after creating additional systems, as we will discuss later.
After completion of zone groups, users must define what enduses exist in the building. These include items such as, Lighting, office equipment, miscellaneous accessories, and process loads. For each enduse selected, another screen is made available.
Almost all buildings contain interior lighting and office equipment. When prompted, users must define watt/sq ft. of peak consumption for each space type. Remember to modify the daily profile as necessary by clicking the “...” button at the bottom of the screen. Keep in mind that default profiles make reasonable approximations based on the entered occupancy profiles entered earlier.
Some enduses consume gas instead of electricity. For items such as cooking loads, users should enter the electric heat gain, as well as the gas heat gain (if applicable). For gas items, users must also enter the latent component of the heat, since combustion produces both latent and sensible heat gain.
Users must define exterior lighting month by month, as daylight hours differ throughout the year. Keep in mind that exterior lighting simply “spins the meter”, without adding space loads.
User must also define domestic hot water profiles in the wizard. However, users define additional parameters when clicking the DHW Plant button in the Project Navigator.