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The company that develops WUFI energy modeling software has released an update, WUFI Passive 3.0, as well as a version without all the bells and whistles that can be downloaded for free.
WUFI Passive incorporates the new climate-specific standards of the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS). It also includes updated inputs for lighting and plug load calculations, advanced geometry import options and calculations for appliance exhaust air, according to an announcement from the developer, Fraunhofer IBP.
The free version, which can be downloaded from the Fraunhofer IBP site, doesn’t provide all of the functions of the full version. Calculations for moisture transport and storage, for example, aren’t included, according to the company.
It does, however, include full Passivhaus modeling in the “static” mode, says Mike Knezovich of PHIUS, and it’s capable of certifying a project under the PHIUS+ standards. “It’s a great way to get a feel for WUFI Passive,” he said by email. “It may be all some folks ever need. Others will license the full-functioning version, especially folks that do a lot of projects or large-scale projects.”
The full version is listed for sale at 460 Euros for a one-year license, 1250 Euros for a three-year license.
PHIUS said in its announcement that Fraunhofer IBP collaborated with PHIUS and Owens Corning to develop WUFI Passive, and the result was a program suited to North America’s varying climate zones.
“WUFI Passive dramatically improves the quality and efficiency of the design process for Certified Passive House Consultants,” PHIUS said.
Fraunhofer IBP developer at PHIUS conference
PHIUS also announced that Dr. Hartwig M. Künzel, a building scientist and creator of WUFI, will be the keynote speaker at its North American conference in September.
Künzel is a lecturer in civil engineering at Stuttgart University and has published more than 300 scientific articles in trade journals and text books. He has served on a number of standards committees, PHIUS said, including ASHRAE.
The conference takes place in Chicago from Sept. 9 to 13. Early bird registration is available through July 15.
Sam Rashkin, chief architect of the Building Technologies Office in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, will deliver the closing address.
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6 Comments
Free Version is German language version only?
It appears to me that the free version is only available in German. Mein Deutsch nicht so gut.
Some paid versions are available only in German and English, others in many languages.
Select the language you want
Robert,
Lisa White, the certification manager at PHIUS, says you should be able to select the language you want when you download the free version of the program. To do so, you'll have to register at the Fraunhofer Webshop (go to this page). I use a Mac, and when I tried to register at the site, I got only the German version of the registration page (according to Lisa, computers using Windows have a translation function, but it's not apparent on Apple's browser, Safari). Even if I could have registered, however, it wouldn't have done me much good. WUFI won't run on a Mac.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
I tried with a PC
I registered on the Fraunhofer Webshop page (in English), but my registration failed. After registering, my password wasn't recognized.
the first time I tried to
the first time I tried to register the password also didn't work. I tried a second time and it worked. I've just now installed the "WUFI Passive Free" program and am playing with it. It's in English.
I deal with Hot2000 on a daily basis, so seeing something that's NOT H2K is a lot of fun.
WUFI on a Mac
I run WUFI on my MacBook Pro using Parallels emulator running Windoze 8.1. Runs great.
I registered and downloaded, and was glad to notice the fine print about leaving zero space before name, password or license key in the initial registration window. After eliminating space before words in a couple of these fields I was able to move to next step and download though it appears that values to be entered are metric and I’m not sure if there is a way to switch this, which in my case would be preferable.
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