Project Information Tab

Description

Acronym - A short description (up to 20 characters).

Title - A fuller description (up to 50 characters).

Owner - The building owner information.

Location Info

Address - The address where the building is located. Two lines are available for this.

City - The city where the building is located.

State - The state where the building is located

Zip - The zip code where the building is loacted.

Jurisdiction - The city and/or county with authority to issue your building permit.

Climate Option - For Florida code compliance, this option must always be set to "By Florida Jurisdiction".

Building Info

Type - The building classification based on use class from the Type list.

Class - The class building such as New or existing for which compliance is being calculated.

Area from Plans - The total building square footage as indicated on the plans.

No of Stories - The number of the separate floors in this building project. The default is 1.

Rotate Building clockwise by (or Azimuth) - The orientation of the building is relative to true north. It is expressed in degrees from 0 to 360. The default is 0.0. Changing this angle has the effect of rotating the building about its z-axis (vertical axis). The default value is 0 and usually does not require modification. Clicking will open the Azimuth Dial window. Common values are: North = 0; South = 180; West = 270; East = 90.

There are 3 ways to enter the value

1. Click on the minus or plus button to select the value and then click on 'OK'.

2. Click on the E or W or N or S or NE or NW or SW or SE to enter the selected value and then click 'OK'.

3. Click on the wheel to select the desired value and then click 'OK'.

 

NOTE: Orientation of Walls, Roofs and Floors are relative to the building orientation.  Any value other than zero for the building orientation will rotate all Walls, Roofs and Floors correspondingly during calculation.

Select Profile - Use the button to load a profile for the zone. The profile will include all the schedules for internal loads and gains in the building. For non-code purposes, the profiles and schedules can be entered and modified by the user. All code related simulations will use default values for profiles and building internal loads and gains schedules.

 

Designers Tab

Enter names of individuals and Registration as applicable. (up to 50 characters)

 

Zone-Sys Assignment Tab

For Method A Compliance all zones in the project must be assigned to systems by checking the appropriate box.

A system can have more than one zone assigned to it. However, multiple systems cannot be assigned to a single zone.

 

Settings Tab

IECC 2012 Prescriptive Option - According to the IECC 2012 Code, a new building must pass the general given requirements for a new building, along with one of the energy efficiency packages described below. This dropdown menu allows the user to choose which effiency package to include when running an IECC 2012 prescriptive method.

Energy Efficient HVAC Option - Uses the information from IECC 2012 c406.2 to determine if the minimum efficienies of heating and cooling systems are within range with the requirements laid down in the same section.

Energy Efficient Lighting Option - Places stricter requirments on the lighting power density (LPD) of the whole building, as determined by the building type.

On-Site Renewable Energy #1 - Places the requirement that the sum total of all on-site renewables provide no less than 1.75 Btu (1850 W), or no less than 0.5 watts per square foot of conditioned floor splace.

On-Site Renewable Energy #2 - Places the requirement that the sum total of all on-site renewables provide no less than 3 percent of the energy used within the building for mechanical and water heating equipmenet and lighting.

ASHRAE 90.1-2010 Section 5.5.4.5 Excpetion - Check or Unchceck depending upon if the building satisfies the excpetions outlines in ASHRAE 90.1-2010 section 5.5.4.5 concerning fenestration orientation.

Use Building Area Method for Lighting Compliance - If checked, compliance will be calculated using an overall building total LPD as opposed to a zone by zone compliance calculation.

Project Complies with IECC 2012 402.3.1.1 for Increased Fenestration Area - Check or Uncheck depending upon if the building sastifies the requirements for additional vertical fenestration area detailed in section C402.3.1.1 of the IECC 2012 codebook.

Project Complies with IECC 2012 402.3.1.2 for Increased Skylight Area - Check or Uncheck depending upon if the building satisfies the requirements for additional skylight area as detailed in section C402.3.1.2 of the IECC 2012 codebook.

Override Internal Loads - If selected, allows the user to modify the internal loads in the space from the 'Loads' tab on the 'Space Data Input Form'. Leaving this box unchecked will allow the program to use default values for the internal loads. Not applicable for the 2004 and 2008 Florida codes.

Baseline Cooling Plant Capacity Multiplier and Heating Plant Capacity Multiplier - If the unmet hours for the baseline (or reference building) needs adjusting to meet the unmet hour rule, (See ASHRAE 90.1 or 2014 Florida Code for details) these two parameters serve as capacity multipliers for the baseline building to adjust plant output. These parameters will not effect the unmet hours for the proposed building, these hours can be met by modifying the capacity of the proposed plant itself.

Auto Size Proposed Building - If checked, the proposed building will be internally auto-sized so that the unmet hours for heating and cooling are minimized.  This should be used only when user-entered system capacity is unable to meet loads within bounds of unmet hours. This would happen if the schedules and internal loads are not well established for the proposed building and therefore the system capacity is unable to meet loads. First check your input system capacities before using this option.

Override Unmet Hours - If checked, this will completely override the unmet hour rule. Do not use this until all other options and inputs have been verified. Use of this option will require justification to the authority having jurisdiction.

Draft Run - Especially useful in saving time when running the LEED or ASHRAE Appendix G 2004 simulations. The user can quickly run a single orientation for the reference building instead of all 4 orientations to figure out how much of savings they can get for the annual proposed energy use over the reference energy use. Once the acceptable level of percentage savings has been reached, this box can be unchecked to run all 4 orientations to get the final results. Reports generated when the 'Draft Run' option is checked will have a note saying that it was a draft run and a full run needs to be completed for final report submission. Users should be aware that the single run in the 'Draft Run' mode may not necessarily be the worst orientation for the reference building.

‘Use one unit per zone’ - Can be checked to help reduce the heating and cooling unmet hours if they are too high for the baseline building model for non-code (LEED, ASHRAE Appendix G) simulation runs. When the box is checked, and the proposed building model contains a single system assigned to multiple zones, each of those multiple zones will be assigned their own system in the baseline model. This will help reduce the unmet hours for the baseline run in the case where a single zone system is forced to serve multiple zones due to equipment selection as required by ASHRAE Appendix G.

 

Climate & Utility Rates Tab

Allows the user to choose the climate location for the design building and to enter local utility rates for fuel charges.

TMY3 (Typical Metrological Year) weather data files are now used by default for all code simulation runs in EnergyGauge Summit. For all non-code simulation runs (LEED, ASHRAE Appendix G etc.), the user has the option to use the older TMY2 weather data set. TMY3 weather data sets are derived from more accurate and more recent weather data and are recommended to be used for greater simulation accuracy. These data sets are now available for over 1000 locations in the United States.

To use time-of-use- rates, first check the “Use TOU Schedule?” column. Clicking the button on the “TOU Schedule” column will lead the user to the TOU schedule used. The user may choose to use another TOU schedule or create one under the main menu Edit -> Profiles and Schedules, and then invoke the newly created schedule here.  Note that TOU schedules are applicable only for electric rates and not for other fuels.

  If checked, this entry tells the program to use user entered utility rates and time of use rates instead of internal default rates for the 2010 Florida code compliance. This entry has no effect on 2008 and 2004 Florida code compliance and ratings. For other calculations always the user entered rates are used.

Summary Tab

The summary window presents all the information entered by the user for the particular project.

 

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