Download Energy Model Input Translator

3 O VERVIEW
This softw are tool is a com pilation of spread sheet based calculators that w ere
d eveloped in response to the build ing energy m od eling com m unity’s need for tools that
translate d esign d ata and cod e requirem ents into typical energy m od el inputs. The goal
in d eveloping this tool is to red uce the tim e it takes to prod uce a quality energy m od el,
and therefore increase the use and accuracy of energy m od eling in build ing analysis
and d esign.
3.1 COMPATIBILITY AND SAVING THE FILE
The tool w as d eveloped in Microsoft Wind ow s XP SP3 u sing Office 2007. The file has
been saved d ow n to Excel 97-2003 com patibility to provid e greater usability. All efforts
have been m ad e to avoid com patibility errors, but becau se the program uses VBA sub routines, problem s m ay occur d ue to library locations. These problem s occur w hen
Excel is upd ated and the path of a VBA library is changed . This can be fixed by
correcting the path by going to the VBA ed itor (Alt+F11), choosing Tools/ References,
selecting the library which has been m od ified and brow sing to find the correct path.
Ad d itionally, w hen using Excel 2007, the w orkbook m ust continue to be saved as 972003 com patible (.xls) as opposed to a 2007 version (.xlsx).
3.2 O THER TOOLS AND M ATERIALS
This tool w as d eveloped by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in conju nction w ith several
other softw are tools and ed ucational m aterials w ith the sam e goal in m ind . This
includ es:
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Model Manager: A DOE-2.2 based Excel tool, w hich stream lines param etric
runs in DOE-2.2 based m od eling softw are
LCCAid: A tool for life cycle cost analysis m ad e specifically for architects and
build ing system s engineers.
Elements: A freely available, com prehensive, integrated w eather tool suitable
for solving all of the com m on w eather tasks associated w ith bu ild ing energy
m od eling. Features includ e read / w rite/ convert betw een all m ajor w eather
file form ats and cu stom d ata, visualization and analysis, d ata ed iting and
error checking.
Energy Audit Sample Forms: Sam ple form s to assist build ing energy
aud itors in collecting the d ata required to com plete com prehensive energy
and financial analyses of proposed m od ifications to a build ing
EMIT and other tools and content can be found at:
http:/ / w w w .rm i.org/ rm i/ Mod elingTools.
Energy Mod el Inp u t Pre-Processor User’s Gu id e
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