I am looking for some suggestions from anyone who is using a software application for estimating the total energy consumption of a residential building.

The application needs to take into account all of the following: building materials, insulation levels of floors, walls and ceilings, orientation, window types and sizes, overhangs, awnings, shading, solar gain, thermal mass, internal energy and heat loads, HVAC, number of occupants, internal lighting, natural lighting, natural cooling, etc.

Basically, everything that affects a real, occupied building.

I have been looking at a number of free applications as a starting point. Most of these are either too simplistic or are really meant for commercial applications. Being intended for commercial applications is not a bad thing, they just tend to only contain materials and systems typically found in commercial buildings and not necessarily a residential building.

I have looked at eQuest, EnergyPlus, HEED, Hot2000, Hot3000, etc. I am not sure that HEED and eQuest have a GUI elaborate enough to completely specify the building. Or maybe, the areas where I think they are lacking are insignificant. EnergyPlus is now a plugin for Sketchup and allows you to really define the building, but it is a very complex app. Hot3000 just continually crashes and Hot2000 seems too simplistic.

I am in the process of building a hypothetical building in each of these that will have a fairly complex energy footprint. I then plan to compare the results.

Anyone have any experience with these or other applications and suggestions or insight they care to offer.

Thanks,