Energos - Effective or Nominal U-value calculation?

[Patrick Fritsch]

Can someone at VW tell me what method is Energos using to calculate the U-Value of wall/slab styles, Effective or Nominal?

 I know it’s pulling the lamba for each component but not sure how it’s adding them up...I suspect Nomimal as framing type and spacing is not specified in the styles.

 If so I will just use the U Value override with my own effective calcs until this can be done in Energos.

Thanks

[Patrick Fritsch]

Crickets for a long time! Coming back to this...

I have 2 questions regarding the Energos module as there is limited information in the VW help files.

1. Has the Energos module been abandoned as there has been no improvements since it’s 2016 release I believe?
2. Is the Energos Module tested with ANSI/ASHRAE 140 "Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs". All Canadian and most American bldg. codes require energy simulation programs to be certified this way to be admissible for code compliance simulations.

The PHPP is certified with ASHRAE 140 therefore can be used for energy modeling as per building code requirements.

 

It would be nice if VW’s Energos was able to explain how accurate or not it is when giving us a pass/fail mark when selecting the Passivhaus Standard as a compliance check (eg: shading devices missing, etc). VW Energos team should do some collaboration with the International Passivehaus Institute to certify the calculation methods as the creator for the designPH SketchUp creators did https://shop.passivehouse.com/en/products/designph-2-116/

 

Finally here is a 3 part post on the comparison between Energos and SketchUps DesignPH tools by an Architect an Certified Passive House designer: https://www.markstephensarchitects.com/vectorworks-energos-review-passivhaus-passive-house-design-pt3/