[bldg-sim] LEED energy modeling with VisualDOE

Hello all:

First time poster. I was referred by Aaron Dahlstrom at AFK Engineers.

I am a new VisualDOE user and will be using the program primarily for energy modeling for LEED purposes. Our firm is based in San Diego, and we are involved in several dozen California LEED projects. As we get more requests for work outside of California, we thought it would be beneficial to become power users of energy modeling software other than EnergyPro. I am very experienced in using EnergyPro and I am very familiar with LEED (as I mentioned, we have done energy modeling for dozens of California LEED projects – everything from small schools to high-rise office towers, Certified to Platinum).

I did research on other DOE interfaces and decided that VisualDOE would be a good place to start. I am jumping right into a new construction project in Seattle that is registered under LEED v2.2 (ASHRAE 90.1-2004 Appendix G Baseline) and I am hoping to find support from other users who are using VisualDOE for documenting LEED projects. Hopefully I have come to the right place. Tianzhen has been very helpful in getting me started and I’m excited to take a LEED seminar from archenergy when it is available in 2007.

Has anyone used VisualDOE for LEED documentation purposes? Is anyone in this group familiar with ASHRAE 90.1-2004 Appendix G (Performance Rating Method)? If so, I have some specific questions about how to best use the software, and a general request for others’ experiences in doing energy modeling for LEED.

Thanks in advance!

Charlie Christenson, LEED AP