SpecSizer = Industry Leading Genset Sizing Tool
I'm so happy to have Chad Dozier back with us today via the Cat Electric Power Hot Line. You may recall Chad did a podcast earlier this year about Spec Sizer, Cat's world class genset sizing tool.
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SpecSizer = Industry Leading Genset Sizing Tool
I'm so happy to have Chad Dozier back with us today via the Cat Electric Power Hot Line. You may recall Chad did a podcast earlier this year about Spec Sizer, Cat's world class genset sizing tool.
Feedback? Write to us at powerbytes@cat.com.
Email us: powerbytes@cat.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cat-electric-power/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Caterpillar.Electric.Power/
Lou: Good Day and welcome everyone to Power Bytes! I am your host Lou Signorelli and Power Bytes is your destination Podcast for power generation conversation. As always please know how much we appreciate you, our listeners. We hope you find our topics helpful and interesting. There are several ways for you to get in touch with the show. You can send us an email at powerbytes@cat.com, visit us at Cat Electric Power on Facebook or LinkedIn. If you enjoy your time with us today Please remember to subscribe to our podcast.
Lou: I'm so happy to have Chad Dozier back with us today via the Cat Electric Power Hot Line. You may recall Chad did a podcast earlier this year about Spec Sizer, Cat's world class genset sizing tool. Chad Dozier has been working in the Electric Power industry for over 25 years, with experience in large diesel generator sets, switchgear, UPS, solar, and energy storage solutions. He remains the program manager for SpecSizer.
Chad it's great to have you back to see us!
Chad: Lou, it's good to be back.
Lou: So Chad, you guys have been so busy this year. The crazy world around us does not seem to have slowed you down one bit. You've had a couple new releases with some great new features. I understand you've updated Spec Sizer with newly released products, and added some new features.
Lou: One such feature has really enhanced the speed of creating larger projects. Care to share that one with us?
Chad: Around 10% of the projects sized in SpecSizer have more than 30 loads. For any sizing program, it can be tedious to manually enter a large number of loads into the program. This process can also be prone to errors - it can be easy to make a typo when entering the load data. So we have now given our users a couple of additional options to add their load profile - a bulk add function and a spreadsheet upload.
The bulk add function was our first step in the process of developing the spreadsheet upload. We developed this feature to help us test out the information needed for the spreadsheet upload. The bulk add functions give the user a simplified interface within SpecSizer to add multiple loads quickly. This can be good if you have a dozen or so loads to add to a project, but may not have the list in a spreadsheet for easy upload.
Lou: Congratulations! Did I hear something too about 'spreadsheet upload' functionality? What is that?
Chad: The spreadsheet upload is the one I am most excited about. We just introduced this feature with our October 2020 update. Most load lists are developed in a spreadsheet anyway, so why not allow the user to upload them? This new upload process saves a significant amount of time - I personally have seen an average time savings of a minute per load… while this may not seem like a lot, when you have 30 loads, that's a 30 minute time savings.
Lou: You also made a new resource or what's new window?
Chad: Yes. We implemented this feature earlier in the year. Everyone is busy, and we wanted to give people in SpecSizer additional resources to help them do their jobs. So we added the What's New window that we use to communicate SpecSizer enhancements and significant product announcements. It also includes a list of useful links to various resources, like Cat white papers, case studies, webinars, and this podcast.
Lou: Can we take a little peek behind the curtain Chad? Can you give us a hint for what we can expect to see from Spec Sizer in 2021?
Chad: We right in the middle finalizing our 2021 roadmap. We have a bunch of items in our backlog - filtering, new load types, new calculators. It's all about getting our users thru the sizing process and to the best generator set as quickly as possible. We are also working on general performance improvements to speed up the software even more - with some of the first changes coming out early next year.
Lou: That's impressive. Did I also hear something about adding some new load types and that you're taking requests?
Chad: Yes. One of the new load types we are working on is a chiller load. If you have a project today with a chiller that you want to size in specSizer, you need to manually build up the components - adding individual pumps, compressors and control loads. It can be done, but it takes some time and knowledge about the chiller itself. The new chiller load will make this whole process quicker. Our users can look for this new load type early next year.
And as always, we take user requests for enhancements. Our users can always use the feedback option in SpecSizer or send us an email at SpecSizerFeedback@cat.com.
Lou: Let's give that email address again, that was to SpecSizerfeedback@cat.com. So all you spec sizer users, be sure to send in a note with any enhancement ideas.
Lou: Before I let you go, I did want to congratulate you on another great year. Spec Sizer continues to be used by a great number of consulting engineers around the world.
Chad: Thanks for the time. And I encourage our listeners to check out the latest features in SpecSizer by going to specsizer.cat.com. Registration is easy and free.
Lou: There you have it folks. I'd like to thank Chas Dozier for sharing his insights with us today… and thank you, our listeners for listening to Power Bytes.
Just a reminder, as Chad mentioned, please go to specsizer.cat.com for more information about this industry leading sizing tool.
If you’d like to suggest other topics for the program or have some feedback to share, please write us here at powerbytes@cat.com or visit Cat Electric Power on Facebook or LinkedIn. Please remember to subscribe to our Podcast wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Till next time, thanks for listening to Power Bytes and have a great day!