Numerical simulation of firing systems requires both the appropriate circuit analysis framework and the special element models required by the application. We have modified the SPICE circuit analysis code (version 2G.6), developed originally at the Electronic Research Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, to allow it to be used on MSDOS-based, personal computers and to give it two additional circuit elements needed by firing systems--fuses and saturating inductances. An interactive editor and a batch driver have been written to ease the use of the SPICE program by system designers, and the interactive graphical post processor, NUTMEG, supplied by U. C. Berkeley with SPICE version 3B1, has been interfaced to the output from the modified SPICE. Documentation and installation aids have been provided to make the total software system accessible to PC users. Sample problems show that the resulting code is in agreement with the FIRESET code on which the fuse model was based (with some modifications to the dynamics of scaling fuse parameters). In order to allow for more complex simulations of firing systems, studies have been made of additional special circuit elements--switches and ferrite cored inductances. A simple switch model has been investigated which promises to give at …

This report presents a reassessment of the proposed standard for energy conservation in new federal residential buildings. The analysis uses the data presented in the report, Economic Analysis: In Support of Interim Energy Conservation Standards for New Federal Residential Buildings (June 1988)-to be referred to as the EASIECS report. The reassessment differs from that report in several respects. In modeling factual information, it uses more recent forecasts of future energy prices and it uses data from the Bureau of the Census in order to estimate the distribution of lifetimes of residential buildings rather than assuming a hypothetical 25-year lifetime. In modeling social preferences decision analysis techniques are used in order to examine issues of public values that often are not included in traditional cost-benefit analyses. The present report concludes that the public would benefit from the proposed standard. Several issues of public values regarding energy use are illustrated with methods to include them in a formal analysis of a proposed energy policy. The first issue places a value on costs and benefits that will occur in the future as an irreversible consequence of current policy choices. This report discusses an alternative method, called relative value discounting which permits flexible discounting …