EQuest: Converted weather file not allowing design days?
Hey all,
I am trying to add a TMY2/TMY3 to my EQuest model. I have converted a .epw to a .bin using Elements, and successfully loaded it into the model, and the file runs.
My problem is that adding heating/cooling design days to the model causes Equest to crash seconds into a simulation. This error has happened with multiple weather files as well as both TMY2 and TMY3 files.
Any ideas?
**Update: Tested both the converted weather file and the design days separately and both models ran. To clarify, equest crashes and closes when I try the combination in question. I was able to find the already converted TMY .bin file at the link Molly sent so hurray. I am going to try compare the file I converted and the one that works to see whats up.
Thanks for the help!
I'm wondering if saving to the text-based *.FMT type from Elements would help clarify what's going on -- it's still a bit cryptic but that format can be opened via a text editor such as Atom (https://atom.io/) and we can see what data that Elements is writing out... If you think this might be an Elements issue, feel free to contact the folks at Big Ladder (I work for Big Ladder on the Elements team) via the elements@bigladdersoftware.com e-mail and give more detail.
Is the TMY2/TMY3 file that you want already available at DOE2.com? If not available, you could try eQ_WthProc (available at the same place) and see if the .bin file created from that program works for you.
Also try using a known valid TMY .bin weather file, then add design days into your project, as a test to verify the problem is associated with the weather file.
Does the program actually crash, or does the simulation get aborted? If just aborted, you can check the .sim file for an error message. The test suggested by Molly is a good idea to see if the issue could be with the design day inputs.
What do you mean by "adding heating/cooling design days to the model"? DOE-2, as well as EnergyPlus, weather files do not contain any design day data, so whatever is causing your model to crash has nothing to do with the weather file. In EnergyPlus, there's a DDY (Design Day) file that you put into your design model. In DOE-2, you have to add the design day parameters into the model by hand. I don't know how eQUEST handles this, but I would guess it's the same as DOE-2, except that you fill in the design day data in a menu-driven window.