So I saw this topic and I was interested. I think using something like this might help convince my landlord to invest a little in his home, and reduce my bills at the same time.

I did a little sniffing and found many references to DOE. Is this easy to use? Could I as a novice navigate through this program? I don't want to hire a professional to do this as I am still early in my career and don't have the money to invest in someone else's home.

If this isn't the ideal program, could someone send me in the right direction. Should I even be using a program at all?

Energy modeling can be very complex. For the novice, I would recommend either hiring an engineer or architect. If you are computer savvy, you might be able to do it yourself. DOE is the foundation for many of the programs on the market and it is the Department of Energy that funds the development of the DOE program.

Here is a list of all (most) the energy modeling software on the market.

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildi...a_list.cfm

You can find some that can integrate easily with a CAD program, but as I mentioned, this is really a job for a professional.

I guess I am in over my head. I use computers at work but nothing like this. Anyone have advice on one of these programs that I as a novice could use.

I just don't want to spend alot of money just for something my landlord may not listen to. Does anyone know if this is worth it for my situation?

Has anyone heard of ecotect. I thought the description on Autodesk's site was pretty cool. I don't know anyone who uses it and I don't have the chops to learn it. If this is becoming industry standard, then maybe I can get someone to play with it for my place and see what we can come up with.

I know this thread has been dead for some time, but I just found out that there are energy modelers for SketchUp. Is this true? I know from experience that SketchUp is pretty easy to learn and if we can now use it to do energy modeling, that would be great.

I am looking to have my new house modeled in some sort of program that can analyze energy usage and efficiency. I think that's what everyone is talking about right? What should I use. Should I just hire someone to do it? Is it even worth it or should I just build and then do an audit?

I was reading an article on the whole movement to do energy modeling on all new buildings. They recommended Energy Plus which I think is a free software and also mentioned Eco-Tect from Autodesk.