"Energy calcs" 20x34 universal 2 story

[cedarglen]

Has anybody had "energy calcs" done on their 2 story universal cottage plans? Are you willing to share them with me? My building dept wants them but really didn't explain to me what they are. Something to do with insulation and heating?

Charles

[Shelley]

Don't know how it's done there, but here there's a work sheet that you can get from the plans check people...in fact here you have to turn it in with the plans for a permit.

You plug in the values that are specific to your house.  Total exterior wall length, wall width, number and sizes of windows and doors, u values of same and insulation to be used.  You want to come to a magic number that is OK in your area.  You can play around with the window quality and insulation.  All kinds of little arithmetic.  Not hard, tedious.

[Amanda_931]

I've got to get up early tomorrow, so I didn't look too hard--not past the first page, in fact.

"Energy calculations sheets" got me this:

http://www.alliantenergygeothermal.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/geo_wrk_siz_001251.hcsp

But it kind of looks like adding "Title 24" to the search is going to get you your best results--including a bunch of advertisers touting software and services.  (advertisers on Google do not have the world's best reputation, by the way.  Doesn't say bleep about these guys, though).

Here's one of the advertisers (caveat emptor)--does tell you what you are going to need to get started, probably by yourself or hiring someone.  They're really cagey about what they charge.

http://www.solargy.com/html/your_title_24_projects.html

[John Raabe]

Before they simplified the energy code in WA state I used to run a program called Wattsun on all my custom houses. The problem was always getting houses with lots of glass to qualify.

Now the code is simpler and if you have good insulation levels you can do unlimited glazing.

I don't know what your energy code requirements are but you should go into the plan checker and tell them you will be getting your own permit and want to know how you can meet the prescriptive requirements for energy code compliance. There should be a checklist type series of optional paths. This is true of all the model energy codes I have worked with.