Allows the entry of all 8 roofs. (The previous version crashed when the bar chart was displayed for more than 3 roofs.)

When calculating the BPI the R-value of curtains must not be accounted for. The previous versions did, however, include the insulation effect of curtains in the BPI calculation. This bug was 'fixed' by removing the curtained window types from the 'WindowConstruction.txt' file. A future revision will again allow the curtained window types, but it will make sure that the BPI is still calculated without the curtains.

Allows the modification of economic values, also if the 'NZS4218 Design' is the Base Case.

Checks whether any energy cost has been entered before an optimisation starts.

The previous versions disabled the 'Modification Cost' cell for newly added designs. Only once the new design was reselected in the 'Current Design' dropdown list the 'Modification Cost' could be entered. This bug was fixed.

The Base Design can now be changed on both the 'Economic Analysis' and the 'Display' pages.

The list of generic R-values can now be opened directly from the menu bar under the 'Tools' menu.

Some printer setups on stand alone PCs caused errors when ALF attempted to print. This error was fixed.

Pressing 'r' while holding down CRTL and ALT closes the ALF program and resets the registry entries. This can be used to enter a new registration name for an existing installation. It also can be used to relocate the ALF window to the top left hand corner of the screen.

The position of the ALF window at the first start-up is now the top left hand corner of the screen.

Command line arguments are now available and files with the extension '.alf' are automatically associated with the ALF program, i.e. double clicking on an ALF project file (extension: '.alf') in Explorer will automatically launch the ALF program and load the ALF project file.

BPI calculation correction: The BPI Factors in the 'ALFClimate.txt' file have been changed and the BPI energy calculation has been modified to use 40% external shading and 70% SHGC for all windows.

The climate zone (NZS4218:1996) for Rotorua was changed from 3 to 2.

The results of the NZS4218 schedule floor compliance are now also displayed for pole houses.

The program now automatically compares the energy consumption for the current heating schedule with the consumption for 24 hour heating as part of the Consistency Check.

Some small modifications to the report layout have been implemented (bold E3 note, remove filename and path from the report, footer text on report split into two lines)

Multiple report page printing is now enabled (still doesn't work for the screen plots ;-( )

The program checks whether the project file attribute is 'Read-only' before saving a file.

A 'Cancel' button was added on the 'Save changes' message box.

The filename in the ALF caption bar is reset back to ? ? when a new project is created

The Base Case drop down list entry on the 'Display' page is updated instantly when the Current Case name is changed.

The floor R-values are now displayed with two decimal digits.

The now program remembers the energy costs after changing between designs.

References to the support e-mail address corrected: from branzalf@branz.org.nz (wrong) changed to alf@branz.org.nz (correct).

In order to artificially fine-tune the amount of internal gains the user can now specify fractional numbers of occupants. (The internal heat gain of a cat is approximately equivalent to 0.2 persons.)

The font size for the ALF3 report footer was changed and the bottom margin was increased, to avoid surplus page printing. (The surplus-page printing problem is related to local printer set-ups. The problem is still not completely solved.)

In some instances, the start-up window position of the ALF3 program was outside of the screen. This problem was fixed.

The method to check whether the project file is 'read-only' was modified. Previous versions caused errors on some PCs, when the user tried to save the file using the 'save' command. (Work-around was to use the 'save as' command instead and use a new file name.) This problem was solved.

The NZS4218 Schedule method check was corrected: The 30% window size limit for single glazing applies to the whole country, and not only to the climate zone 3, as initially implemented in the software.

When ALF3 was used on a PC using Windows2000, the 'Print Report' command printed large numbers of empty pages. This is a bug in the Microsoft Windows2000 RTF-commands. ALF has been modified to work around the problem.

NZS4218(1996) has a 30% limit of single glazing in the Calculation Method. The 30% area is in respect to the TOTAL wall area including the window areas. Previous versions of ALF3 did only consider the actual wall areas (excluding the window areas). This led to more stringent compliance targets than necessary. The calculation has now been modified to take account of the TOTAL wall area.

On 29 December 2000 a revised version of Clause H1 (Energy Efficiency) came into force. This version has a set of different target BPIs. These new values have been incorporated into the software. (ALF3 projects entered using an earlier version of ALF3 will still be compared to the previous BPI targets, even if you are using this latest version of the software (v3.1.1)! If you want to compare an existing ALF3 project with the new BPI targets without having to re-enter the design, please contact the ALF3 technical support for guidance (AbrechtStoecklein@branz.co.nz).

Comments in the ALF3 report about Clause E3 (Moisture) compliance were extended, and now include the specific R-value targets required by Clause E3.

An additional message box was added on the wall and roof selection page, which covers the minimum R-values required by Clause E3 of the New Zealand Building Code.

Hyperlinks were added to ease the access to technical support for ALF3.

In the table, which lists generic R-values for various insulation materials a hyperlink was added pointing to the BRANZ appraisals web site. This will ease the use of product specific insulation R-values for BRANZ appraised products.

Floor insulation compliance with NZS4218:1996 Schedule Method was extended to allow compliance of all concrete slab-on-ground floors and suspended floors with continuous perimeter with 100 mm drooped foil, independent of their individual design.

A bug in the Optimiser Tool was fixed, which did not allow to return to the main screens when no energy cost was specified before the optimisation was attempted.

The report in the Results Section has been locked to disable manipulations and to avoid program hang-ups when printing manipulated reports.

We have spent considerable time on finding ways to make ALF3 run on other than Windows operating systems. There do not seem to be tools available, which allow an easy translation of the Visual Basic code to Mac operating systems. Future software development tools may provide solutions in this regard.

There are system tools available for Mac operating systems, which allow running Windows code on Mac operating systems. These may provide a temporary solution until something more suitable is found.