What does this software do?

This software allows you to model any building and analyze the heating and cooling energy costs for the building in any climate. Create any building -from a one-room apartment up to a 100+ floor skyscraper-, and account for everything from window coverings to shade trees. Using actual hourly weather data from over 90 climates around the world, this software numerically solves the full thermodynamic differential equations every second of the year, giving you the actual energy usage down to the cent.

Can you step me through a very basic tutorial?

1. Remember, you can always click on the
   icon in the left sidebar to get back to this tutorial.
2. Click on the
   icon in the left sidebar to start a new simulation.
3. Work your way through the 7 tabs in the main window, and configure all the settings for the simulation you want to run.
4. Click on the "Run Simulation" button near the top to start the simulation computation.
5. Once it finishes, you should see the simulation appear as a row in the "Completed" category in the left sidebar. Make sure the row is selected.
6. View the overall energy costs for the simulation in the main pane. To chart all the recorded data, click on the "View full data chat button" icon in a completed run.

How do I debug the results?

Because simulation models can be very complex, bugs can easily crop up in the simulation. To help debug any problems, try the following tips:

• When starting a new simulation, the software will remember all the settings from the last run.
• Go to the "Data" tab and select some extra data values to record during the simulation. At the very minimum, select the temperatures of the modules (floors), the power used by the heating and cooling units, and the outside temperature. After you run the simulation, click on the "chart results" button to view all the data items you selected.
• First, look at the module temperatures and confirm they are maintaining the temperature comfort limits you selected. Next, look at the heating and cooling power, and confirm the overall energy cost increases when the heating/cooling is using power.
• If the module temperatures look strange, try re-running the simulation with even more charting data selected. Look for discrepancies between the outside and inside temperatures, and make sure the heating/cooling systems are attempting to keep the comfort settings you chose.