Energy analysis

"Sustainable architecture" is the practise of designing, constructing and maintaining buildings in a way that their environmental impact is minimized. One of the most important aspects of sustainable design is energy efficiency - a drive to reduce the amount of energy a building consumes over its life-span.

"To not make the most efficient use of energy in any form of building is an unethical architectural practise."

According to Royal Australian Institute
of Architects environmental policy

The gauntlet has been thrown down for the architect to take on a new mantel - that of balancing the aesthetic expectations of our modern lifestyles with a lead role in ensuring building efficiency at the heart of building design. Architects are hugely responsible for the environmental impact of their buildings, and legislation will soon be in place to enforce this function.

Now that the tools exist, architects face a commercially sound choice of delivering analysis services and designs, or waiting for governments to enforce new regulations.

Sustainable design has been openly embraced by large practises worldwide who appreciate the value and financial sense of developing green design. Archicad's open standards ideally position the Virtual BuildingTM data at the heart of energy analysis, at the earliest and most flexible stages of design. Not only is energy analysis becoming a key early-phase design input, this versatile use of the existing 3D model's data is a service differentiator for architects right now. Users are actively influencing project decisions early on and saving their clients real money. Read some user accounts in our White Paper on why and how energy analysis is proving a financially sound choice for them, day after day.

If architects can easily analyse their design for energy efficiency at these early design phases, they can capture invaluable feedback on their building's energy performance and be in a position to react to it in their and their client's long-term interests. Ultimately, with energy efficiency we all win.

Learn more about the integral role Archicad can play in achieving this goal and the architect's role in sustainable design by viewing this "Sustainable design with Archicad" presentation.

Key energy analysis solutions

ArchiPHYSIK® is a stand-alone tool with a plug-in to Archicad to estimate, calculate and optimize the physical properties of the building - such as thermal insulation and storage properties, vapor diffusion and acoustic damping. Read more.

Green Building Studio, Inc. - energy analysis Green Building Studio® is a free Web service that allows architects to create building energy performance and energy cost estimates of their Archicad models at the earliest design phases. It is connected to Archicad via a Plug-in that converts the Archicad model to a Green Building XML format and uploads it to the GBS website directly from Archicad. Use it for your next eco-charrette! Read more.

EnergyPlusTM is a next generation building energy simulation program that allows architects, engineers, building owners and managers to minimize energy use and cost. It optimizes building performance by simulating building energy usage: building heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation, and other energy flows. EnergyPlus is a stand-alone simulation engine without a graphical interface. Read more.

The is a complete environmental design tool which couples an intuitive 3D modeling interface with extensive solar, thermal, lighting, acoustic and cost analysis functions. ECOTECT® is one of the few tools in which performance analysis is simple, accurate and most importantly, visually responsive. Read more.

RIUSKA® is a tool for the dynamic simulation of comfort and energy consumption in building services design and facilities management. It calculates inside temperatures and the heating and cooling of individual spaces, and can be used to compare and dimension HVAC systems as well as for calculating the energy consumption of whole buildings. It also has a module to calculate the heat loss of a building in a steady-state condition. Read more.