EA-QUIP

Analyzes energy use and energy conservation measure opportunities in both single and multi-family dwellings. A brief explanation for each question and range of possible answers are only a keystroke away, which is what makes EA-QUIP (Energy Audit using the Queens Information Package) user-friendly and easy to use. EA-QUIP was adapted from the Computerized, Instrumented, Residential Audit (CIRA) developed in the early 1980s at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
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EA-QUIP determines economically optimal mixes of energy-saving measures for a given building and within a chosen budget, for which it uses retrofit and cost libraries. From the library of measures, the program chooses those which are applicable to the building under consideration and ranks them by decreasing savings-to-cost ratio. This ratio is defined for each retrofit as the incremental life-cycle savings (energy savings minus future maintenance and replacement costs over the user-selected time horizon) divided by the installed cost of the measure. EA-QUIP provides pre formatted energy and economics reports such as: Applicable Energy Conservation Measures rated by Life-Time savings per investment, Existing condition, Energy savings, Savings and costs, and Investment Analysis report where measures are prioritized and ranked by Saving to Investment Ratio (SIR). For energy auditors and energy policy makers who are more interested in the most desirable energy-saving combination of retrofits, EA-QUIP is able to answer this question in an automated process consisting of two stages: the selection of retrofits, and their economic optimization.

Keywords

building modeling, energy savings analysis, retrofit optimization (work scope development), investment analysis

Validation/Testing

N/A

Expertise Required

Basic understanding of building science and interactions between building systems. Medium level of computer knowledge required. Training is recommended to maximize use of program features.

Users

50-100. Currently being used in multifamily buildings in New York, Illinois, and Ohio, and for small homes in New Jersey. The EA-QUIP has been approved as a DOE waiver audit for weatherization.

Audience

Energy professionals interested in energy efficient retrofitting of existing multifamily and single family buildings, including but not limited to low income weatherization program professionals.

Input

Client info, geographic location and site details. There are two levels of input: concise and expanded. The expanded list provides questions that give many details of the dwelling. In the concise mode, the program automatically provides default answers to these additional questions, based upon the dwelling type, the answers you have given previously to these questions and on the answers you give to other questions. The expanded mode allows the user to input adjustable parameters which give greater control over calculation values. A number of adjustable parameters (combustion efficiency, interior day/night temperature, domestic hot water usage, domestic hot water temperature, etc.)for which data to be entered can be measured, through the on-site inspection of the dwelling, only approximately, but they are important to the energy analysis of the dwelling.

Output

After all the questions about the dwelling have been properly answered, EA-QUIP estimates monthly and yearly heating and cooling energy consumption and, on request, recommends combinations of energy saving measures suitable for a range of budgets. Every combination is chosen to produce the highest energy savings for a given budget. Interest and inflation rates, maintenance costs of the installed measures, and projected period of occupancy are taken into account.
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EA-QUIP provides pre formatted energy and economic reports such as: Applicable Energy Conservation Measures rated by Life-Time savings per investment, Existing condition, Energy savings, Savings and costs, and Investment Analysis report where measures are prioritized and ranked by Saving to Investment Ratio (SIR). For energy auditors and energy policy makers who are more interested in the most desirable energy-saving combination of retrofits, EA-QUIP is able to answer this question in a pre-formatted output reports consisting of two stages: the selection of retrofits, and their economic optimization.

Computer Platform

IBM compatible PC having 128K RAM and disk storage capacity of 400K.

Programming Language

Basic

Strengths

There is no need to learn a language or remember any commands to use EA-QUIP. EA-QUIP does the work by asking questions; user simply answers the questions displayed on the screen. The questions are grouped by components such as Infiltration, Roof, Basement, Economics and Fuel, Heating system, walls, windows, etc.. EA-QUIP leads the user automatically through each of the components of the dwelling. EA-QUIP allows the user to either input or use programmed default values to assure consistent and reliable results, while maintaining a quick and simple program for new and experienced users. EA-QUIP allows the user to add or remove items in some of the components such as wall, window, roof, and basement where more than one, or no, item may be present in the dwelling. For example, if the dwelling has more than one type of wall and roof, the user can create an additional wall and roof type to input separate data for each type.
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EA-QUIP has an extensive retrofit and cost libraries, again all of them grouped by Components, which makes it very easy for the user to modify the costs in the library. Modification to the retrofit library requires programing. EA-QUIP generates four pre-formatted reports which provide energy and economic results of the retrofit analysis. The first presents the current energy characteristics of the building, the other three reports list all the retrofits found to be cost-effective, ranked in order of declining cost-effectiveness or increasing payback period which is very helpful for developing prioritized scope of work based on the Savings to Investment Ratio or decreasing pay back. Once an analysis is completed on a dwelling, EA-QUIP allows the user to create a Work scope file for it. Each of the energy conservation measures found to be cost-effective are listed and asked whether to include it in the Work scope.

Weaknesses

Some of the strengths of the EA-QUIP are also its weakness. For example, as mentioned above EA-QUIP has an extensive retrofit library, however, modification to the library requires programing knowledge. Once a building is entered and analyzed, EA-QUIP automatically creates a data file, a report file, and a few more files, however, it does not create a building specific cost file. Without a building specific cost file that could be copied and transported to another computer like a building file, an analysis of the same building over two different computers will yield different results unless the cost libraries on both computers are identical. One of the biggest drawbacks of the EA-QUIP is that it does not analyze dwelling's electrical usage, especially at the apartment level. Also, EA-QUIP will not analyze the dwelling's domestic hot water fuel usage if the DHW maker fuel type is different than the primary fuel type, that is, the heating fuel.

Contact

Availability

A no-cost software package is available only to weatherization agencies, upon request. Fee based technical assistance is available to all. For all other non-governmental entities, fully functional software and technical training packages are available. Contact David Hepinstall or Asit Patel at above number for further information.

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