TREAT 3.0 — A New Version with Groundbreaking Features

May 3, 2005, Ithaca, NY

Taitem Engineering and Performance Systems Development announce a major advancement in residential energy modeling; TREAT 3.0. New features in TREAT are designed to dramatically reduce the time it takes contractors and energy analysts to model residential and multifamily buildings, without losing access to any of the advanced modeling features. TREAT has also been nominated for the prestigious R&D 100 award.

TREAT 3.0 includes three powerful new tools to help you speed up your business process:

The Project Wizard - An innovative new method for quickly setting up a building energy model that is customized to a variety of building shapes and configurations. The Project Wizard automates much of the process of defining spaces, zones, surfaces and appliances, dramatically reducing the time it takes to complete a model. The Project Wizard also reduces training time and increases the quality of models by making sure that users don't forget anything.

Measurement and Inspection Wizards - These new tools dramatically drop the time it takes to enter the non-energy, health and safety observations and measurements that users routinely record and/or report or require as part of a defined business process. Users can open the Wizard, simply fill in the measured values or observations and then record them in a single click of the Save button.

Preferences - Identify inputs that stay the same from project to project, such as fuel rates, weather, heating and cooling season dates, and many others. These can now be automatically generated for every new project created. TREAT users no longer have to edit generic defaults - they can set up their own custom defaults for a variety of values, including building air-tightness, shielding class, calculation algorithms, etc. Users can also have TREAT generate lighting and a specified set of appliances for every new space that created, depending on the space type.

In addition to the new speed enhancements, TREAT 3.0 also includes:

Enhanced Model Inspector - The Model Inspector now includes a graphical view of the energy use for each calculated model, as well as parameter checking and tips on improving each model.

Enhanced Domestic Hot Water Screen - Now, all sorts of water heaters can be modeled, from standard gas heaters and heat pump water heaters, to boiler-driven and tankless instant heaters. And adjustments to DHW load are much easier, allowing faster true up.

Two-Fuel Fixed Allocation Option - Set the percentage of heat that is to be provided by each fuel.

Fuel Bill to Model Comparison with Incomplete Billing Data - Visually compare modeled results with less than a full years billing data. This allows true-ups with minimal billing data available.

With these speed and technical enhancements, TREAT remains the premier tool for analyzing retrofit options, and now challenges other existing modeling tools for the new construction market.

Previous features from TREAT 2.6 release:

  • Transportable data files allow users to easily exchange TREAT project files. Each file is known as a TPG file (TREAT Project Group) and has a .TPG extension.
  • Home Energy Rating scoring is now available to all users.
  • A Lifestyle Savings calculator computes the savings that can be achieved with little or no cost by occupants changing their behavior, for example replacing furnace filters regularly.
  • A new Weatherization Report shows the recommended financial investment for the building.
  • Heating and Cooling Seasons can be modeled on the Weather/Defaults screen. Billing and model heating energy usage during the months that are not part of a heating season is equal to zero, even if there is non-zero heating load during these months. The same rule applies to cooling. This allows users to model the common behavior of occupants who, for example, do not turn heating on until October, and who turn heating off on May 1.
  • Natural Ventilation can be modeled for free cooling during non-heating months, on the Spaces Advanced screen. This feature allows modeling the effect of opening the windows when the outdoor temperature is below 68F and the space temperature is above 70F.
  • Interacted Savings and Savings-to-Improvement Ratio (SIR) are shown for each improvement. The savings and SIR are shown individually for each improvement as implemented with the others. The improvements are sorted within the package from highest to lowest SIR.
  • Library upgrades to the Surfaces, Glazing, Frame, Heating, Cooling, Appliance, Lighting, Visual Inspection, Measurements and Daily Weather Libraries provide more choices for creating building models. New items include glass block windows, storm windows, Energy Star dishwashers, Energy Star heat pumps, and more surfaces with high-density foam insulation.
  • Multiple improvements to the calculation algorithms and the graphical user interface.

About TREAT — Targeted Residential Energy Analysis Tools

TREAT is a powerful software tool for weatherization which allows auditors to model building energy consumption and to identify the most cost-effective efficiency upgrades in both single family and multifamily buildings. This scalable application may be used to model all types of residential buildings including trailers, attached townhouse units, detached single family, and large multifamily buildings.

TREAT may be used to calculate a HERS score, perform load calculations and distribution sizing. Models may be created with multiple heating and cooling zones as well as unheated areas. TREAT allows users to project savings from single upgrades and packages of upgrades, taking into account interactions between measures. TREAT normalizes utility bills which allows users to "true up" estimated energy use against actual fuel bills. It also includes screens for recording and reporting health and safety data such as carbon monoxide and flue draft measurements.

TREAT's development has been sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in cooperation with the US Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). NYSERDA is currently integrating TREAT as the required auditing tool for their Home Performance with Energy Star® and New York Energy Star® Labeled Homes Programs. TREAT models building energy consumption using hourly weather data and the SUNREL calculation engine developed by the NREL. In addition to building insulation, window, and air leakage properties and mechanical system efficiencies, the model incorporates gains from solar radiation and lights, people and appliances.

TREAT has been extensively tested and is pre-approved by DOE for use in the Low-Income Weatherization Assistance Program. TREAT has passed the Tier 1 and Tier 2 BESTEST requirements and has the capability to provide home energy ratings in accordance with the national Home Energy Rating System (HERS) standard.

TREAT users include: NYSERDA's Assisted Multifamily Program energy audit providers; nhsaves, the New Hampshire electric utilities statewide weatherization initiative; and the California Building Performance Contractors Association, which is conducting a regional building performance pilot with support from the California Public Utilities Commission.

Performance Systems Development is a nationally recognized consulting firm specializing in market transformation services for building performance, including software, training and research. Taitem Engineering is a consulting engineering firm with extensive design, energy audit, software development, and residential energy research experience.

Contact Information:

For information and general inquiries on TREAT or any of our other software and online Energy Analysis tools please contact us at:

Performance Systems Development, Inc.
124 Brindley St. Ste. 4
Phone: 607-277-6240
Fax: 607-277-6224
www.psdconsulting.com
www.pscontracting.com