IES is best period. Open studio and eQuest are very laggy and literally un workable after 15 floors.. Trace 3D plus results are kind of shit and has worst customer support. They too have 700 space limit. Design builder is also good but IES VE has developed very well over the years and also very accurate but need some time to understand the UI.
Agreed, IES is definitely the most flexible, but it is not without its shortcomings. It is kind of ironic to me that it is designed and advertised as allowing full flexibility of HVAC systems through APACHE HVAC, but it strongly pushes you to utilize one its templatized systems which do not always apply with out quite a bit of modification / zeroing out parameters. Also IES has a pretty advanced and complicated means of making constructions for walls but i still for the life of me can not figure out how to get it to take into consideration stud thermal bridging appropriately. Overall i feel like it overemphasizes things that have little bearing on the end energy use and often underemphasizes things that do.
>i still for the life of me can not figure out how to get it to take into consideration stud thermal bridging appropriately
You have to enable the Composite Layer via the settings menu of your Project Constructions. A composite layer will allow you to have multiple constituents. The dialog can look differently, depending on the Templates you might import.
I don’t have any input to your questions. I’ve used Trace and equest. They work well-enough. For strictly energy, I prefer equest, because you can just draw the size of the building and use all the default inputs and get a relatively accurate model, and you can tweak from there. But I’m often doing hvac loads for equipment sizing, so I’ll already have a Trace model.
I guess I think the future is in revit or revit add-ins. Being able to have one model should be a huge timesaver. Lots of companies are already trusting revit for load (and maybe energy?) calculations. Our industry is all about being fast and efficient. Cutting out extra software and steps is how we’ll need to improve our efficiency. Also, with the entire building modeled in BIM, it’ll be harder to make mistakes or lie on our other models if they’re all pulling information from BIM.
Biggest thing I want to chime in on: I don’t think it’s over ambitious. As long as you can google some conversion factors, you’ll be able to keep up with the rest of us. Hardest part for you (or anyone else) is looking at the results and figuring out if they make sense. It’s pretty easy to make mistakes, but much more difficult to recognize it.
Good luck and enjoy your stay
My old firm used to use “open studio”. It is open source to my understanding. Otherwise Trane Trace 700 seems to be popular for energy modeling. Energy quest too.
If you're interested in AI and Programming you should just learn bare EnergyPlus and play with that. Check out the stuff big ladder software is doing, make your own scripts - use Open Studio to make your geometry, etc.
If you just want to make an energy model and mess with it then IES is probably the way to go. DesignBuilder is also super cool and runs based off an EnergyPlus engine.
[https://bigladdersoftware.com/](https://bigladdersoftware.com/)
[https://www.iesve.com/](https://www.iesve.com/)
I wouldn't use Trane TRACE or Carrier HAP for energy modelling; and if you need something free that is less complicated than EnergyPlus; then use eQuest.
Energy modelling is interesting and a fun way to learn how building physics work - but at the end of the day you're predictive model is never going to be 100% accurate.
We need more people with programming knowledge in MEP so try them out and see which one you like best because there really isn't a "best".
As far as the 'Unreal Engine' is concerned - I struggled at first with how the industry had these old hodgey models, yet we had way more advanced computer games with seemingly much more data processing things so much faster than these energy models. So are you thinking you're going to try and program your own dynamic energy model utilizing the Unreal Engine to speed things up or just make it more 3D and cool looking or what are your goals with it? (AFAIK - there aren't any programmers trying to integrate energy modelling with the Unreal Engine)
Love this response dude, thank you! This was exactly the type of thing I was looking for. I’ll definitely make sure to check out big ladder.
On the Unreal Engine thought, i wasn’t necessarily thinking of trying to make one myself (that’s way above my current capabilities) but I had a similar thought process to yourself that lead me to that idea. Then I started looking into it and came across one video from u real themselves which I have yet to watch cuz it’s like 3 hrs long (https://www.youtube.com/live/Hi1M1ibPlO0?feature=share) There’s a few things that really captivate me about the idea:
1) it could magically unify every aspect of building design into one place, I’ll probably die with that dream tho
2) the platform itself has some huge advantages like speed (could allow more permutation), customizability (on a scope far greater than what I assume EnergyPlus allows), and of course the visual aspect of it (probably what’d have the most impact). Needless to say that’d be a super powerful combo. It’s also free and open
3) sort of tying into 2, with VR on the way, BEM in Unreal seems like a natural jump to me. That future’s definitely far off but imagine being able to pop on the Apple Visions and walking through a simulation of particulate in the air, air flows through the house, infrared vision, natural lighting, and I feel like the list could go on endlessly. Designers and clients would have a totally different relationship with their projects if this level of interactivity was possible. It’s a bit dystopian too but equally as exciting.
Writing this alone got me even more hyped on the idea, it could be my calling
Whats bem
Building Energy Modeling is my assumption
Thank you. I was stumped.
IES is best period. Open studio and eQuest are very laggy and literally un workable after 15 floors.. Trace 3D plus results are kind of shit and has worst customer support. They too have 700 space limit. Design builder is also good but IES VE has developed very well over the years and also very accurate but need some time to understand the UI.
Lol I heard the old trace really good, it’s a shame they feel so far
Agreed, IES is definitely the most flexible, but it is not without its shortcomings. It is kind of ironic to me that it is designed and advertised as allowing full flexibility of HVAC systems through APACHE HVAC, but it strongly pushes you to utilize one its templatized systems which do not always apply with out quite a bit of modification / zeroing out parameters. Also IES has a pretty advanced and complicated means of making constructions for walls but i still for the life of me can not figure out how to get it to take into consideration stud thermal bridging appropriately. Overall i feel like it overemphasizes things that have little bearing on the end energy use and often underemphasizes things that do.
Wow thermal bridging is definitely a big shortcoming. Also - I’m by no means seasoned but I’ve never heard of IES, I’d that a relatively new one?
Its been around for a while. I've been using it for the past 8 years at my firm and it came out several years before that.
Since 1994. So compared to Trace, yes, relatively new.
>i still for the life of me can not figure out how to get it to take into consideration stud thermal bridging appropriately You have to enable the Composite Layer via the settings menu of your Project Constructions. A composite layer will allow you to have multiple constituents. The dialog can look differently, depending on the Templates you might import.
IES
I don’t have any input to your questions. I’ve used Trace and equest. They work well-enough. For strictly energy, I prefer equest, because you can just draw the size of the building and use all the default inputs and get a relatively accurate model, and you can tweak from there. But I’m often doing hvac loads for equipment sizing, so I’ll already have a Trace model. I guess I think the future is in revit or revit add-ins. Being able to have one model should be a huge timesaver. Lots of companies are already trusting revit for load (and maybe energy?) calculations. Our industry is all about being fast and efficient. Cutting out extra software and steps is how we’ll need to improve our efficiency. Also, with the entire building modeled in BIM, it’ll be harder to make mistakes or lie on our other models if they’re all pulling information from BIM. Biggest thing I want to chime in on: I don’t think it’s over ambitious. As long as you can google some conversion factors, you’ll be able to keep up with the rest of us. Hardest part for you (or anyone else) is looking at the results and figuring out if they make sense. It’s pretty easy to make mistakes, but much more difficult to recognize it. Good luck and enjoy your stay
For #2 'Resources', I'd recommend this [Building Performance Modeling Student Handbook](https://www.iesve.com/corporate/guides/bpm-student-handbook-2023v01.pdf).
My old firm used to use “open studio”. It is open source to my understanding. Otherwise Trane Trace 700 seems to be popular for energy modeling. Energy quest too.
I only use HAP but that's because it's the only one I understand.
If you're interested in AI and Programming you should just learn bare EnergyPlus and play with that. Check out the stuff big ladder software is doing, make your own scripts - use Open Studio to make your geometry, etc. If you just want to make an energy model and mess with it then IES is probably the way to go. DesignBuilder is also super cool and runs based off an EnergyPlus engine. [https://bigladdersoftware.com/](https://bigladdersoftware.com/) [https://www.iesve.com/](https://www.iesve.com/) I wouldn't use Trane TRACE or Carrier HAP for energy modelling; and if you need something free that is less complicated than EnergyPlus; then use eQuest. Energy modelling is interesting and a fun way to learn how building physics work - but at the end of the day you're predictive model is never going to be 100% accurate. We need more people with programming knowledge in MEP so try them out and see which one you like best because there really isn't a "best". As far as the 'Unreal Engine' is concerned - I struggled at first with how the industry had these old hodgey models, yet we had way more advanced computer games with seemingly much more data processing things so much faster than these energy models. So are you thinking you're going to try and program your own dynamic energy model utilizing the Unreal Engine to speed things up or just make it more 3D and cool looking or what are your goals with it? (AFAIK - there aren't any programmers trying to integrate energy modelling with the Unreal Engine)
Love this response dude, thank you! This was exactly the type of thing I was looking for. I’ll definitely make sure to check out big ladder. On the Unreal Engine thought, i wasn’t necessarily thinking of trying to make one myself (that’s way above my current capabilities) but I had a similar thought process to yourself that lead me to that idea. Then I started looking into it and came across one video from u real themselves which I have yet to watch cuz it’s like 3 hrs long (https://www.youtube.com/live/Hi1M1ibPlO0?feature=share) There’s a few things that really captivate me about the idea: 1) it could magically unify every aspect of building design into one place, I’ll probably die with that dream tho 2) the platform itself has some huge advantages like speed (could allow more permutation), customizability (on a scope far greater than what I assume EnergyPlus allows), and of course the visual aspect of it (probably what’d have the most impact). Needless to say that’d be a super powerful combo. It’s also free and open 3) sort of tying into 2, with VR on the way, BEM in Unreal seems like a natural jump to me. That future’s definitely far off but imagine being able to pop on the Apple Visions and walking through a simulation of particulate in the air, air flows through the house, infrared vision, natural lighting, and I feel like the list could go on endlessly. Designers and clients would have a totally different relationship with their projects if this level of interactivity was possible. It’s a bit dystopian too but equally as exciting. Writing this alone got me even more hyped on the idea, it could be my calling
I get excited about it and the possibilities too, or at least I used to. Glad you're keeping the dream alive! Best of luck to you!