Products and Services
White Paper
Energy analysis with ArchiCAD
A sustainable future needs sustainable architecture
The design, construction, and maintenance of buildings have a tremendous impact on our environment and our natural resources.
- There are more than 76 million residential buildings and nearly 5 million commercial buildings in the U.S. today. These buildings together use one-third of all the energy consumed in the U.S., and two-thirds of all electricity. By the year 2010, another 38 million buildings are expected to be constructed.
- Buildings are a major source of air pollution that contributes greatly to climate change. They account for 49 per cent of sulphur dioxide emissions, 25 per cent of nitrous oxide emissions, and 10 per cent of particulate emissions, all of which damage urban air quality. Buildings produce 35 per cent of the country's carbon dioxide emissions - the chief pollutant blamed for climate change.
- "Typical" buildings consume more of our resources than necessary and generate a large amount of waste. According to Laurence Doxsey, former Coordinator of the City of Austin Green Builder Program, "a standard wood-framed home consumes over one acre of forest and the waste created during construction averages from 3 to 7 tons." Often, these buildings are costly to operate in terms of energy and water consumption. And they can result in poor indoor air quality, which can lead to health problems.[1]
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 during its life-span.
As building shape and orientation play a crucial role in determining the structure's future energy consumption, design is central to the building's energy performance. Therefore architects are hugely responsible for the buildings' environmental impact. These characteristics are notoriously difficult and expensive to change at the final stages of the design process where, traditionally, energy efficiency calculations take place. If architects could easily analyse their design for energy efficiency at the earliest possible design phases, they could get invaluable feedback on their building's energy performance and be in a position to react to it. To do this, they need a digital model of the building and an analysis tool that can determine its efficiency.
ArchiCAD® is Graphisoft's purpose-built virtual modeling solution that allows architects to create a 3D model of their design, effectively creating a Virtual BuildingTM. This White Paper details how ArchiCAD supports key aspects of energy-efficient design and how best to analyse the Virtual Building for energy performance using various purpose-built building energy analysis software tools.
Standards for sustainable architecture
"To not make the most efficient use of energy in any form of building is an unethical architectural practise."[2] 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. 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.
Governments and authorities have long realized the importance of sustainable design and have gradually founded organizations and developed standards for high-performance, sustainable buildings.
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a national sustainable design organization that developed the voluntary LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System TM. LEED is now widely accepted among State governments and authorities across the U.S. as the standard for measuring sustainability in buildings. LEED consists of five major categories: site design, indoor environmental quality, efficient use of energy, materials and water. Buildings are rated on how they satisfy the set criteria. Having a high LEED rating for a building entitles its developer to different financial inducements from the State, or even from some private foundations that are promoting green design. Moreover, all new federal buildings must achieve a LEED "silver" certification from the outset.
In the EU, building energy performance calculations will be standardized next year. From 04 January, 2006 the Energy Performance Directive (EPD) will come into force across all EU states. It will provide a common framework for energy calculation which, up until now, differed from country to country and were sporadically enforced. Not only will minimum requirements be set for calculating the energy performance of buildings, but an energy certificate will need to be earned and issued for every new building and large renovation.
All of this aside - building owners themselves are becoming more aware of the ever increasing maintenance costs of their buildings and the huge long-term expense burden they could incur from energy-inefficient architectural design. It's no longer simply a question of installing eco-friendly energy-conserving materials. Building owners and designers alike are making that active commitment to go green throughout the design process, since the Virtual Building's rich data allows for green interventions at the most fundamental, early design phases.
Energy analysis
Sophisticated energy usage simulation software has been around for more than two decades. Unfortunately, these programs not only required comprehensive knowledge of how to analyse energy usage patterns but also of the particular program itself. The result has been that only specialists could do energy simulations, and with the effort and expense required, it generally meant that energy analysis only took place once - at the end of the design process. At this late stage, the analysis became a token gesture and helped little in influencing the design in terms of energy efficiency. It only served as a checking tool to allow the architect and client to justify the results, and it was rarely used as a collaborative design tool among the design team.
Nowadays there are a suite of easy-to-use applications available that can be handled by the architect, delivering energy analysis throughout the design process. Energy analysis no longer needs to be an expensive specialist-dominated procedure. It is just another design consideration that helps the architect create energy-efficient buildings using software tools which can interact with the Virtual Building data, requiring little additional effort on the designer's part.
ArchiCAD provides robust design information along with this necessary level of model detail. This information can be directly accessed and used for energy analysis by Green Building Studio® and ArchiPHYSIK®, or via industry standard formats to other applications such as ECOTECT®. These applications have been designed for architects and can be used from the early design phases to help them make the right environmental - and legal - design decisions concerning the buildings envelop structures and materials.
ArchiCAD's support for IFC provides a link for professional building performance simulation software like EnergyPlus® or RIUSKA®. These tools are fully integrated building and HVAC simulation programs that dramatically improve the simulation of whole-building approaches in design, planning, and construction, and opens new doors for energy savings, cost savings and indoor environmental quality.
Using ArchiCAD with all the above tools provides great benefits to both architects and energy specialists. Because the energy analysis tool can directly access ArchiCAD Virtual Building models, feedback on the energy consumption of the building can be obtained at any time during the design process. And ongoing changes to the design do not lead to any laborious reworking on the simulation side - manually adjusting the geometry of the building to keep up with the alterations - because the essence of a 3D model means all the data is up-to-date and immediately usable. Of course, without a Virtual Building the process will be more painful and inefficient.
"Traditionally, one spends 75-80% of resources contracted for energy performance simulation and analysis just to prepare building geometry input for the simulation and analysis; by the time one is finally ready to start actual simulation and analysis, the design has typically already changed to the extent that the building geometry input has most likely become obsolete and now requires modification," points out Vladimir Bazjanac, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
However, with ArchiCAD the updated 3D model can be easily analysed over and over again by the energy simulation tool, no matter how much or often the plan evolves. Clearly this saves both the architect and client a great deal of effort and money, and makes earlier design influences based on energy efficiency a realistic, responsible and commercially attractive option for all parties.
"One has currently little choice but to use ArchiCAD as the BIM authoring tool if one wants to import building geometry directly into EnergyPlus, for example," Bazjanac continues. "EnergyPlus geometry represents the energy simulation and analysis "view" (i.e. the thermal "view") of the geometry. It uses thermal zones (and not individual rooms) as basic geometry definition components. ArchiCAD's IFC2x2 Utility is the only tool that allows one to easily agglomerate rooms/spaces into thermal zones - one can create IfcZones in the building "tree" and then drag-and-drop individual rooms/spaces from the "tree" into IfcZones. Without this utility one has to redraw the building to create its thermal "view", which requires skill and takes a significant amount of time proportionate to the size and complexity of the building."
Over the following pages we will outline the main features and benefits of the energy software tools mentioned above, and we'll give you a brief introduction to how they can be used together with ArchiCAD commercially and responsibly.
Partner products
1. ArchiPHYSIK (4.5)
ArchiPHYSIK (APH) 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.
ArchiPHYSIK has a large "real-life" building elements library which makes the calculation realistic and precise. A built-in "climate generator" simulates the precise weather conditions of the selected location. Templates of local building regulations help you create the required certificates easily.
Location selection in APH.
An API link between ArchiCAD and APH allows you to export the model geometry to APH, calculate physical properties and select the best building structures accordingly. The calculated data can be linked back into ArchiCAD. This 2-way live link gives immediate feedback on how design changes affect the physics of the building, enabling you to select building materials and design solutions taking into consideration the energy performance of the building from the early design phase. Instant update of the energy calculation from within ArchiCAD lets you easily monitor the physics of the building during all of the design phases.
"Using the data from the Virtual Building enormously reduces our workload when calculating the energy performance of our buildings. We can nearly entirely cut the time spent on recalculating spaces and areas of the different building elements!"
Stöckl Ulrich, Architect from Saalfelden/Kitzbühel, Austria.
APH has been developed by A-Null, Graphisoft's distributor in Austria. It has been validated by the Technical University of Vienna, the Donau University of Krems and is used in more then 80 buildings institutes in Austria and Germany. APH is currently available as stand-alone or Web-service in German-speaking countries. Other language versions will also be available in the future.
Interface of ArchiPHYSIK.
2. Green Building Studio
Green Building Studio (GBS) 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. GBS has been specifically designed to streamline the integrated design process and greatly reduce the cost of designing green buildings by facilitating team collaboration.
It connects to ArchiCAD via a Plug-in that converts the ArchiCAD model to a Green Building XML format (gbXML, an open XML schema that is quickly being adopted by the HVAC software industry for data exchange) and uploads it to the GBS website directly from ArchiCAD. The geometry of the ArchiCAD model including zones (ArchiCAD zones either created by the user or automatically placed by the Plug-in based on the geometry), their bounding surfaces and openings, and exterior shading surfaces are contained in the gbXML file and are enriched with intelligent baseline defaults relevant to local building codes and a full whole building energy analysis is run using the DOE-2.2 simulation engine (a widely accepted building analysis program). Only the building type and the location have to be entered in Green Building Studio manually.
Annual energy consumption costs and a wide range of data on the building heating and cooling loads, spaces, and systems (breakdowns of energy use for major electric and gas components like lighting, HVAC, and space heating) are summarized and presented in ArchiCAD.
Besides the detailed report, the building can be exported in gbXML, 3D VRML and DOE-2.2 file formats, and can be further analysed for energy efficiency by other applications like Trane's Trace 700 or eQuest (a free DOE-2.2 GUI). GBS can also produce EnergyPlus idf files for a fee and upon request as well.
Each building project runs through the GBS placing relevant product information in front of the design team. Using a Google-like bidding and paid placement approach, and a building-relevance filter, highly targeted advertisements can be placed in front of the building designer in the GBS Product Advisor.
Currently GBS is available only in the U.S. (It provides climate data only within the U.S.).
"As environmentally sensitive architects, the ability to quickly and effectively perform energy analyses on our building models is beneficial to us throughout the design phase and adds tremendous value to our clients. Added value equals higher fees."
Russ Sanders, RA, The Orcutt/Winslow Partnership
"Our ability to offer PRELIMINARY energy analysis will give us a huge advantage over our competition. This is a clear trend. If we're able to show our buildings will have lower lifecycle costs AND BETTER PERFORMANCE, then it will land us more jobs. Simple."
Andy R. Thomson, Jon Worden Architects
3. EnergyPlus
EnergyPlus 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 fully integrated building energy performance simulation software, which dramatically improves the simulation of whole-building approaches in design, planning, and construction, and opens new doors for energy savings, cost savings and indoor environmental quality.
EnergyPlus is a stand-alone simulation engine without a graphical interface. It comprises hundreds of sub-routines working together to simulate heat and mass energy flows throughout a building, calculating loads for HVAC equipment sizing and performing energy analysis for evaluating energy consumption.
EnergyPlus simulation process with
two helper applications in the background.
Running accurate simulations requires a wide range of data sets including, among others: geometry, construction, location, weather, building usage and HVAC description data. Due to the large quantity of necessary input data and the lack of a "user friendly" interface, this engine is geared towards an audience with a strong technical background. Although the learning curve is quite steep, it is possible to complete simpler simulations after a few weeks of training with the help of thorough documentation.
The simulation process relies on editing and processing person-legible text files. The building description data is entered by hand or by using some basic utilities. The engine can be coupled easily with third party applications like the BSPro Com Server, which helps the process of converting IFC building data to EnergyPlus input data format. EnergyPlus users can take advantage of ArchiCAD's interoperability standards compliance during the building envelope input process: ArchiCAD 6.5, 7, 8.0, 8.1, 9, 10 projects can be exported to IFC 1.5, 2.0, 2x and 2x2 interchange formats. EnergyPlus IDF format can also be obtained through gbXML using the Green Building Studio as discussed earlier.
The program can be downloaded at no cost from the www.energyplus.gov site along with weather data for more than 800 locations in 97 countries, thus enabling the worldwide use of this simulation engine. The IFC geometry interface to EnergyPlus (IFCtoIDF) includes the BS Pro COM server and the executable is bundled with the distribution of EnergyPlus.
"After having created a virtual building model with ArchiCAD we can then start immediately working on building energy performance simulation and do not have to recreate building geometry again specifically for the simulation. This saves time and money and produces simulation results much sooner, when they still can contribute to design of alternatives they represent."
Vladimir Bazjanac, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
4. ECOTECT
ECOTECT is a highly visual and interactive building design and analysis tool that links a comprehensive 3D modeller with a wide range of performance analysis functions covering solar, thermal, energy, lighting, acoustics, resource usage and cost aspects. Whilst its modeling and analysis capabilities can handle geometry of any size and complexity, its main advantage is a focus on feedback at the earliest stages of the building design process.
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 Analysis information displayed directly within the context of a building model - the example above showing incident solar radiation over a complex 3D form sited within a cityscape. |
ECOTECT aims to provide designers with useful performance feedback both interactively and visually. Thus, in addition to standard graph- and table-based reports, analysis results can be mapped over building surfaces or displayed directly within the spaces that generated them, giving the designer the best chance of understanding and demonstrating exactly how their building is performing.
In addition to the extensive selection of internal calculations that ECOTECT can perform, it also exports to a range of more technical and focused analysis engines such as Radiance, EnergyPlus, ESP-r, among others.
The recent addition of a comprehensive scripting engine that provides direct access to model geometry and calculation results has made performance-based generative design and optimisation a very real option for the environmental engineer and designer who uses ECOTECT. Scripting allows models to be completely interactive and self-generative, automatically controlling and changing any number of parameters, materials, zone settings or even geometry during calculations or as the user specifies. At a more day-to-day level, the scripting functions are excellent for automating the more mundane tasks involved in calculation runs, results comparison and report creation.
ECOTECT is unique within the building analysis industry in that it is entirely designed and written by architects and intended mainly for use by architects - although the software is also quickly gaining popularity with engineers, consultants and building designers, as well as owner-builders and environmental enthusiasts alike. The thermal model can be exported from ArchiCAD to ECOTECT v5.50 via the gbXML file format, while the 3D model geometry can be transferred as 3DS files.
Click here to download the ArchiCAD Model Preparation Guide in PDF format.
Click here to download the Ecotect add-on for ArchiCAD (compatible with version 10, 11, and 12).
5. RIUSKA
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 entire buildings. It also has a module to calculate the heat loss of a building in a steady-state condition.
RIUSKA is based on many years of development work at Granlund, in Finland. The engine at its heart is the internationally known DOE 2.1 E simulation program.
The RIUSKA interface.
RIUSKA covers all the requirements of thermal performance simulation from preliminary design to facilities management and renovation. It has been developed specifically as a design tool for use by engineers in their everyday work.
It is possible to directly transfer and reuse digital building geometry data from ArchiCAD through the IFC interface. RIUSKA has been officially certified by the IAI to comply with the IFC 2X, IFC 2.0 BLIS (Building Lifecycle Interoperable Software) and the IFC 1.5.1 standards.
RIUSKA is developed and distributed by Granlund (www.granlund.fi) in German speaking and Scandinavian countries.
"Energy efficiency is becoming a key factor in model design, and ArchiCAD allows the Architect to positively affect the design at the earliest, and most convenient, phase."
Janne Järvinen, Arkkitehtitoimisto JKMM Oy
6. ArchiVIP
A Web service that allows architects to create building energy performance estimates of their design proposals.
A Swedish product designed for use in early design phases. It is free, although has no direct ArchiCAD connection (therefore manual data input is required), but negotiations are underway to establish that direct ArchiCAD link. It is suitable for PC and MAC platforms.
Appendix
1. ArchiPHYSIK
Value proposition
The strong-point of ArchiPHYSIK is its use of realistic building components, realistic climate data and pre-created data templates and its two-way linking of the database to the ArchiCAD model. Therefore the value propositions are:
- The component database helps you select the appropriate "real-life" building components from the early design phase to control energy performance of the building.
- The bi-directional linking gives feedback on how design changes affect the physical properties of the building. This makes it possible to create rough energy calculation early on, and consider energy performance all along the design process.
- It automates the creation of energy certificates that meet local authority expectations according to EN and ISO standards.
Main features
- Types of calculation:
- Thermal insulation
- Heat storage
- Vapor diffusion
- Acoustic damping
- Heat loss and heating energy calculation
- Ecological impact, CO 2 pollution
A graphical interface for calculating heat fall-off and vapor diffusion. U-value and vapor resistance can be calculated and modified for each building element by changing the thickness of layers and changing the material properties.
Graphical interface to calculate U-value of a building structure.
- ArchiPHYSIK library contains:
- building materials, elements and composite structures
- their U-values, λ-values, eco-index and validated data for acoustic damping
- thermal bridges
- regional climate data
- regional requirements
- "Energy certificate" creation based on ISO and EN standards.
- Pre-defined forms to easily create printed output.
- Add-on for ArchiCAD to export model into a data file readable for APH.
- Data exported to ArchiCAD that displays main values of the energy calculation. Live link with APH makes it possible to update these values when design is changed.
Workflow diagram - connection between ArchiCAD and ArchiPHYSIK.
- Stand-alone or Web-based solution.
- Available for MAC and PC.
Relevant design stages
Using APH at an early design phase will assist in deciding the right materials and building structures to be used. The two-way linking between APH and ArchiCAD ensures that the energy consequence of design decisions can be permanently controlled. APH greatly facilitates the creation of the final papers required by the authorities.
Audience
- Architects who strive to achieve an energy-conscious design process. Energy calculation is available from the very beginning, and the final output is also easy to create.
- Authorities who govern the planning process, and create statistics for the region (e.g. CO 2 savings to conform the Kyoto-protocol).
- Building material manufacturers and service contractors for energy consultants.
Workflow with ArchiCAD
- With the Add-on provided for ArchiCAD, export the model geometry into an .aps file.
- In ArchiPHYSIK (standalone application) import the .aps file. During the course of import each building element type (different types of walls, slabs, roofs, windows and doors as well as zones) have to be linked to an APH library record (pre-defined "real life" structures).
- Define building location by entering zip code, select the building regulation you need to meet.
- APH automatically publishes the most important data in a text file, which can be displayed and updated in ArchiCAD.
Energy data displayed in ArchiCAD.
- Select the templates you need, and print the energy certification.
Output
- Energy Data displayed in ArchiCAD that shows the current values of the most important energy parameters.
- APH library elements can be exported as GDL objects to facilitate detail creation in ArchiCAD.
- Printed output based on templates. A well formatted "energy passport" can be created with very little editing work.
Energy certificate for the city of Vienna.
ArchiCAD compatibility:
- ArchiCAD 6.5; 7.0; 8.1; 9; 10
- MAC and PC platform
Relevant countries
Primarily: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia,
An International (English) version also exists.
Pricing and availability
| APH standard: | Austria: €1,650, Germany: €1,200 |
| APH elements: | €680 |
| APH Web: | €3,500 pa |
| APH Web extended: | €9,500 first, 20% annual fee |
| Maintenance: | €20% pa of the list price |
Contact
Company: A-NULL EDV GmbH
Address: Straussengasse 16
A-150 Vienna, Austria
Email: ,
Website: www.archiphysik.com, www.a-null.com
2. Green Building Studio
Value proposition
GBS removes major barriers to energy efficient and sustainable green building design as well as streamlining everyday engineering tasks. It provides whole-building energy analysis using the widely accepted building analysis program, DOE-2.2, at no charge to the design team.
- Drives down the costs of building design and whole-building energy analysis,
- Speeds time to project completion, eliminating time-consuming plan take-offs and analyses,
- Accelerates Green Building LEED compliance
- Improves model accuracy, sharing gbXML files between engineering programs
- Identifies appropriate manufacturers products for the building early in the design cycle.
Main features
- Whole-building energy analysis
GBS is accessed from within ArchiCAD and uses the wide range of building design information in the model to create a geometrically correct thermal model of the building, with appropriate zoning and orientation. This model is developed using regional building standards, and codes for intelligent assumptions for the appropriate space loads, constructions, and typical building systems. The building is then run through the DOE 2.2 hourly simulation model using typical annual weather data for the building's location. Annual energy consumption, costs, and a wide range of data on the building heating and cooling loads, spaces, and systems are summarized and presented within ArchiCAD.
- Project information sharing with design teams and manufacturers
Every building project is given the ability to "opt in" and share detailed project and building data with other team members and building product manufacturers (BPMs) at the earliest stages of design. This means that the architect can share detailed building data directly with their engineers in the format they need for running their analysis programs, and with BPM sales teams and those preparing bids. The information includes detailed data about constructions, geometry, and spaces in the building, and is available at the planning and schematic design stages. This data goes well beyond the project summary data currently collected by lead services like Dodge Project Information and can be used to precisely market building products to the right people in the right projects at the right time in the decision cycle, well before plans are finalized and bid packages prepared.
- Design alternative comparisons
There are two ways to use GBS to compare the estimated energy consumption of alternative building designs. Each building design configuration can be submitted to GBS as a separate run within a single project. When each run is successfully completed, the results are summarized in a GBS table and can be reviewed. This is an excellent way for the architect to quickly and cost effectively share their initial design schemes with their engineer, energy consultant, and LEED consultants prior to their initial Charette. Currently detailed result comparisons are not available, but have been designed and are planned for in a future release. However, for buildings in California, GBS have the Savings By Design option, which does make a second model run using high-efficiency design recommendations of the California Utilities, which usually provide about a 30% reduction in energy costs. This can be used to review a relatively standard Title 24 code-compliant building and the high efficiency alternative.
- Additional information services
Using gbXML and GBS, detailed DOE-2 and EnergyPlus, model input files are created in minutes and at no charge to the design team (EnergyPlus requires a scaled fee). These highly detailed model files typically take 1-2 weeks to develop using plan take-off services or engineers. This service can take $5,000 to $10,000 or more out of the cost of preliminary and downstream building design, and can also significantly reduce the cost of sales for BPMs that run engineering models or sales sizing tools.
- Product Advisor
In the near future, each building project run through the GBS will place relevant product information in front of the design team as early as during the planning and schematic design stages. Using a Google-like bidding and paid placement approach, and a building relevance filter, highly targeted advertisements are placed in front of the building designer in the GBS Product Advisor. These advertisements are linked to the Building Product libraries on-line, providing a high ROI advertising placement for BPMs and appropriate information for the design team.
Relevant design stages
GBS is intended to be used at the earliest design stages to evaluate multiple design proposals for building energy performance.
Audience
Practising architects, designers, engineers, construction managers, etc. Also power-user energy simulation consultants and researchers can use the Web service to eliminate manual plan take-offs and to build geometrically accurate models.
Workflow with ArchiCAD
- Register at www.greenbuildingstudio.com website.
- Set up your project at GBS websites where all the analysis results will be stored later.
- Install the GBS Add-on into ArchiCAD.
- Start ArchiCAD, open your model file, and save it with a new name.
- Log-in to the GBS Web service from the GBS Energy menu in ArchiCAD. In ArchiCAD with the help of the GBS Add-on, the Virtual Building model will be converted into gbXML format and uploaded to GBS website where the energy analysis will be carried out.
- Select the Calculate Rooms menu. The Add-on can automatically place zones into the rooms of the model or use the existing zones of the projects for the calculations.
- Select the Energy Analysis menu.
- Specify location, building type, and GBS project, the Add-on reads all the geometric data of the model automatically.
- Export to the GBS Web service from ArchiCAD. During the analysis the model is enhanced by GBS using regional building standards, and codes for intelligent assumptions for the appropriate building type. The building is then run through the DOE-2.2 hourly simulation program using typical annual weather data for the building's location.
- View your results within minutes.
- View your building in 3D using the VRML link to ensure it is correct.
See detailed tutorial at:
www.greenbuildingstudio.com/Tutorial.aspx
Output
Outputs for each design scenario modeled include:
- Estimated Energy & Cost Summary (annual, lifecycle).
- Energy End-Use Charts.
- Building Summary of construction areas, equipment capacities, etc.
- Product Advisor ranking by relevance and/or CSI division.
- gbXML file for import to Trane TRACE 700 or other gbXML-compliant tools.
- DOE-2.2 file for import to eQUEST.
- EnergyPlus IDF file for editing and running in EnergyPlus.
- VRML file.
- Local utility/green building program analysis (where sponsored).
ArchiCAD compatibility:
Add-on is available for:
- ArchiCAD 8
- ArchiCAD 8.1
- ArchiCAD 9
- ArchiCAD 10
Pricing and availability
GBS is provided as a free Web service to architects and engineering design teams.
Register at www.greenbuildingstudio.com.
It is currently funded by grants from major utilities and by building product manufacturers. Custom design process and engineering simulation input file creation services can be purchased from GeoPraxis at nominal engineering fees.
Relevant countries
Currently the U.S. with other countries enabled in the near future as funding allows.
Contact
Company: GeoPraxis, Inc.
Address: Suite 202 205 Keller Street
Petaluma, California 94952-2886
United States
Tel: +1 (707) 766-7010
Fax: +1 (707) 766-7014
Email:
Website: www.geopraxis.com
3. EnergyPlus
Value proposition
A building's heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, and equipment systems all interact with each other, the building envelope and the building site in a multitude of complex ways. Integrating all of the variables into an energy-efficient design can be a daunting task without the assistance of design tools, such as EnergyPlus. It allows users to calculate the impacts of different heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment, and with various types of lighting and windows to maximize building energy efficiency and occupant comfort.
Due to its modular design and simple input/output formats the engine can be coupled easily with third party applications, therefore it can be adapted to the requirements of different domains. Various tools and interfaces are available for creating, editing, and displaying input files, running multiple parametric simulations, facilitating building geometry input from other applications.
Graphisoft's Virtual Building technology and IFC interoperability compliance makes ArchiCAD a useful tool for accurate geometry data input of rather complex building envelopes. By using ArchiCAD the object-oriented data will be preserved during the whole data conversion process.
Simplified building envelope model and the original ArchiCAD model.
Features
EnergyPlus includes many innovative simulation capabilities: time steps of less than one hour, modular systems and plant integrated with heat balance-based zone simulation, multi-zone air-flow, thermal comfort, extensive daylighting and advanced fenestration capabilities, and photovoltaic simulation. EnergyPlus also calculates indirect environmental effects such as atmospheric pollutants, associated with a building's energy use.
EnergyPlus provides links to other simulation software:
- COMIS (air-flow and contaminant distributions in buildings)
- TRNSYS (simulation of photovoltaic arrays)
- WINDOW 5 (calculating total window thermal performance indices)
Strengths
EnergyPlus is state-of-art software under constant development. It was first released in April, 2001, and at the time of writing the current release is 1.2.1, which is the ninth formal release in four years.
- Users have significant control over almost every detail during the simulation process: the data input can be made using various methods, the output can be flexibly configured and the results can be processed using any spreadsheet application.
Raw output in CSV format and editing data with a spreadsheet application.
Relevant design stages
EnergyPlus is intended for highly accurate analysis. It is a perfect tool for late design stages: for construction plans, HVAC system planning, and performance analysis. Instead of a detailed model, the actual building can be stripped down to a simplified building envelope and thermal model, thus EnergyPlus can be used efficiently for earlier design stages as well. Below are some possible uses:
Energy conservation studies
- Effect of the thickness, order, type of materials, and orientation of exterior walls and roofs;
- Effect of thermal storage in walls and floors, and in energy storage tanks coupled to HVAC systems;
- Effect of occupant, lighting, and equipment schedules;
- Effect of intermittent operation, such as the shutdown of HVAC systems during the night, on weekends, holidays, or for any hour;
- Effect of reduction in minimum outside air requirements and the scheduled use of outside air for cooling;
- Effect of internal and external shading, tinted and reflective glass, and use of daylighting.
Building design studies
Initial design selection of the basic elements of the building, primary and secondary HVAC systems, and energy source;
- During the design stage, evaluating specific design concepts such as system zoning, control strategies, and systems selection;
- During construction, evaluating contractor proposals for deviations from construction plans and specifications;
- A base of comparison for monitoring the operation and maintenance of the finished building and systems;
- Analysis of existing buildings for cost-effective retrofits.
Audience
The intended audience is a design engineer or architect that wishes to size appropriate HVAC equipment, develop retrofit studies for life-cycle cost analysis, optimize energy performance, etc.
Workflow with ArchiCAD
The basic role of ArchiCAD in such a complex workflow is to provide detailed and accurate geometry data about the envelope and the thermal zones of the building. The IFC format serves as an interchange format between ArchiCAD's project file and EnergyPlus' text-based IDF file format. The EnergyPlus suite comes with an IFCtoIDF converter. This tool connects to a middleware Server (BSPro COM-Server) as a client to get simplified building geometry data from the IFC file. The BSPro COM-Server executable is bundled with EnergyPlus.
In addition to the building geometry, some other data has to be specified either by editing the input file with a text editor or by using the simple EnergyPlus input file editor interface:
- Building construction information: specification of construction for exterior walls, interior walls, partitions, floors, ceilings, roofs, windows and doors.
- Building use information: specification and schedules, lighting and other equipment, and of the number of people in each area of the building.
- Building thermostatic control information: specification of the temperature control strategy for each area of the building.
- HVAC operation information: specification and scheduling of systems and plant.
Before running the simulation, the location and climate information has to be specified, which is performed by downloading the most appropriate weather data file.
Besides the simulation results, the program provides various output files to assist the user in checking the input file for errors and modeling inaccuracies. The output logs can be controlled quite flexibly with the input file and can be also post-processed with a spreadsheet application. The visualization of the results is only limited by the spreadsheet application's capabilities.
ArchiCAD compatibility
The following IFC formats can be converted to EnergyPlus' IDF format:
- IFC2x2
- IFC 2 .x
- IFC 2.0
- IFC 1.51
These formats can be created using the following ArchiCAD versions
- ArchiCAD 10
- ArchiCAD 9
- ArchiCAD 8.1
- ArchiCAD 8
- ArchiCAD 7
EnergyPlus IDF format can also be obtained through gbXML using the Green Building Studio as discussed earlier.
Pricing and availability
EnergyPlus can be downloaded at no cost from the website of U.S. Energy Depart-ment: www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/ (Registration is required).
Relevant countries
The usage of EnergyPlus is not limited to any particular municipality due to the following reasons:
- Weather datais available for more than 800 locations: 295 locations in the U.S., 55 locations in Canada, and more than 450 locations in 93 other countries throughout the world.
- Most building element descriptions are available — or can be created using the reference data set for materials — to simulate the local commonplace solutions.
- Being a generic building energy simulation tool the calculation methods are not determined by regional building standards, codes.
Contact
U.S. Department of Energy
Address: EE-2J, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585-0121, U.S.
Tel: +1 (202) 586-2344
Fax: +1 (202) 586-4617
Email:
Website: www.energyplus.gov
4. ECOTECT
Value proposition
ECOTECT is a complete building design and analysis tool that covers the broad range of analysis functions that are required to truly understand how a building design will perform. Wherever possible, simulations are visual and interactive allowing a designer to "play" and learn about building performance as they use the software.
Main features
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Strengths
A complete building analysis tool which is highly visual and interactive. ECOTECT allows the user to "play" with design ideas at the conceptual stages, providing essential analysis feedback from even the simplest sketch model. It also continues to guide the user as more detailed design information becomes available through the complete range of analysis.
Relevant design stages
Intended for use at early design stage so as to provide the most useful and cost effective environmental feedback to the designer. However, an ECOTECT model can continually be developed from sketch design to final validation and provide analytical feedback throughout.
Audience
ECOTECT is designed and written by architects and intended mainly for use by architects - although the software is used extensively by engineers, local authorities, environmental consultants, building designers, as well as owner-builders and environmental enthusiasts alike.
Workflow with ArchiCAD
The thermal model generated from ArchiCAD projects can be exported to ECOTECT v5.50 via the gbXML file format. The ArchiCAD add-on to create gbXML files is provided by Green Building Studio, Inc. for free to registered users. Please visit the Green Building Studio website for more details. The 3D geometry of ArchiCAD models can be transferred to ECOTECT through the 3DS file format. The 3D Studio export function is a standard feature of the latest ArchiCAD versions.
Output
ECOTECT's own analysis functions use a wide range of informative graphing methods which can be saved as Metafiles, Bitmaps or animations. Tables of data and summaries are also easily output. For more specific analysis or validation, ECOTECT provides a user-friendly interface to RADIANCE, EnergyPlus, and HTB2, and will export to a range of other analysis programs such as ESP-r and NIST FDS. It is also possible to import and export an array of geometry and data formats such as, 3DS, DXF, VRML and many others too numerous to list here.
Relevant countries
ECOTECT is not restricted by geographic location and is used worldwide. Thermal calculations do rely on valid weather data though, thus data for 200+ international locations is provided free with the software, plus you can drag-and-drop the (free) EnergyPlus data format (along with many others such as, TMY(2), TRY, DAT, WYEC2, LST and any ASCII format) giving access to an additional 800+ locations.
ArchiCAD compatibility
Computer platform
Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 & XP (Can also run on MAC OS under Virtual PC)
Current pricing and availability
Prices start from:
- €590 for a single commercial* licence,
- €325 for a single educational* licence,
- €80 for a student* licence,
with additional discounts for multiple licence purchases.
Visit www.squ1.com/store/prices for a full price list including UK£, US$ and AU$ prices.
* Note; all licence types offer the same complete software functionality.
Contact
Company: Square One research Pty Ltd
Australia: PO Box 1003
Joondalup WA 6919
Australia
Fax: +61 (0)8 9300 8666
Email:
Website: www.squ1.com www.ecotect.com
5. RIUSKA
Value proposition
RIUSKA covers all the requirements of thermal performance simulation from preliminary design to facilities management and renovation. It has been developed specifically as a design tool for use by engineers in their everyday work. The value proposition for RIUSKA is the following:
- Developed for practical design.
- Efficiency in energy analysis.
- User-friendly interface.
- RIUSKA makes it easy for HVAC engineers to compare a variety of design alternatives for clients and architects, and to ensure optimal indoor air conditions and energy costs.
- The simulation data used by RIUSKA is saved in a special database so that it can be used for life-cycle data management.
Main features
- Space simulation
RIUSKA simulates indoor air temperatures by hourly basis throughout the year. Results can be used for:- Analysis of alternative indoor air quality levels, for example comparisons between cooling and no cooling;
- Comparison of alternative windows and shades;
- Dimensioning of air conditioning equipment; and
- Analysis of temperature problems in existing facilities.
Indoor air temperature for alternative window types and shades.
- System simulation
System simulation can be used when comparing and dimensioning HVAC systems. Typical cases are:- Comparisons between the annual energy consumption of alternative HVAC systems;
- Optimization of zones for air handling units;
- Dimensioning of cooling equipment based on actual cooling loads.
Thermal loads originating from windows, lighting, people,
equipment, thermal conduction and air filtration.
- Building simulation
Building simulation calculates annual energy consumption for the whole building or for groups of individual spaces in different phases of the project. - Preliminary design:
- Comparison of alternative building envelopes or windows.
- Comparisons between optional indoor air quality levels.
- Budgeting of energy costs.
- Calculations of energy consumption for LCC analysis.
- Facilities management:
- Calculation of monthly energy consumption for energy monitoring in building automation or FM systems.
- Calculation of energy costs for technical rent in space management.
Monthly energy consumption by heating, cooling and electricity
of HVAC equipment.
- Heat-loss calculations
The RIUSKA Heat Loss Module calculates heat losses for each space in the building in the given outdoor temperature. Building geometry can be imported in IFC format and the calculated results can be saved back to the same IFC file.
It can be used for analyzing the heat-loss distribution among walls, windows and doors. It is easy to change for example the U-values of certain window types and see the effect of that. It is also helpful, when checking the overall U-value of the building envelope.
Heat losses of the selected spaces compared to the entire building's heat loss.
Relevant design stages
RIUSKA can be used very effectively even from the earliest design stages throughout the whole lifecycle of the project including facility management.
Audience
The target group of the application is the professional energy consultant, however architects, HVAC and electrical engineers may also benefit from using it during the design phase.
Workflow with ArchiCAD
It is possible to directly transfer and reuse digital building geometry data from IFC-compliant architect software like ArchiCAD. RIUSKA has been officially certified by the IAI to comply with the IFC 2X, IFC 2.0 BLIS (Building Lifecycle Interoperable Software) and the IFC 1.5.1 standards. The building geometry modeling for use in RIUSKA can be performed also by SMOG, an object-oriented 3D space modeling software program also developed by Granlund.
Through the IFC interface all the geometric data of the AC model, can be exported to RIUSKA. During the analysis the model is enhanced by using regional building standards, and codes for intelligent assumptions for the appropriate space type. The building is then run through the DOE 2.1 hourly simulation model using typical annual weather data for the building's location.
ArchiCAD compatibility:
IFC 1.51, 2.0 or 2x Add-on is needed for ArchiCAD to export the building model to RIUSKA. The required IFC Add-on is available for the following ArchiCAD versions:
- ArchiCAD 7
- ArchiCAD 8
- ArchiCAD 8.1
- ArchiCAD 9
- ArchiCAD 10
Pricing and availability
The average street price of RIUSKA varies between €4,000-5,000 depending on the country and the actual business case.
Relevant countries
Currently the product is distributed in Scandinavia and in German-speaking countries ( Germany and Switzerland). However with the modification of country specific libraries the software can be sold in other regions as well.
Contact
Insinööritoimisto Olof Granlund Oy
P.O. Box 59
FI-00701 HELSINKI, FINLAND 26. 5.2003
Tel +358 9 351 031
Fax +358 9 3510 3421
Email: first name.surname@granlund.fi
Website: www.granlund.fi
6. ArchiVIP
ArchiVIP enables architects to quickly calculate the energy implications of early design decisions. Through a very simple user interface an architect can make detailed and complex energy calculations with an extremely small amount of input data.
ArchiVIP uses a VIP+ simulation kernel and a middle layer that transforms very simple in-data into a complex physical model. ArchiVIP dramatically reduces the time and expense traditionally associated with whole-building energy simulation analyses. The res ult from ArchiVIPTM can be further analysed and refined directly into VIP+, which is a fully functional energy simulation software.
Value proposition
- Drives down the costs of building design and comprehensive building energy analysis.
- Speeds project completion times, eliminating time-consuming plan take-offs and analysis.
- Improves model accuracy, sharing files between ArchiCAD and ArchiVIP.
- Identifies appropriate systems for the building early in the design cycle.
Main features
Super-fast and simple entire building energy analysis.
ArchiVIP is accessed from within ArchiCAD and used the wide range of building design information in the model to create a geometrically correct thermal model of the building, with appropriate zoning and orientation. The building is then run through the VIP+ hourly simulation model using typical year weather data for the building's location. Annual energy consumption, costs, and a wide range of data on the building heating and cooling loads, spaces, and systems is summarized and presented on the Web.
Relevant design stages
ArchiVIP is intended to be used at all design stages to evaluate multiple design proposals for building energy performance.
Audience
ArchiVIP is intended to be used by practising architects alone and in collaboration with designers, engineers, construction managers, power-user energy simulation consultants and researchers using VIP+.
Workflow with ArchiCAD
You need to install a ArchiCAD report and register at Strusoft website (information will be disclosed when application is ready). The report reads all geo metric data and exports it to a text file. The text file is uploaded to Strusoft's Web server and analysed. The middleware on the server creates a com plex physiological model of the geo metric data and performs a normal year calculation with the VIP+ simulation kernel.
Any data can be alt ered and changed on-line for multiple analyses of different design proposals. All data can be saved on-line for later adjustment.
Output
Outputs for design scenario modeled include:
- VIP+ datafile for dow nload and analysis in VIP+ energy sim ulation software.
- html-formatted file with detailed inf ormation on:
- Estimated Energy & Cost Summary (annual)
- Energy end use table
- Building Summary of construction areas, equipment capacities, etc.
ArchiCAD compatibility:
Pricing and availability
ArchiVIP will be priced by registration fee and a fee per calculation. Custom made websites will also be available for a fee.
Relevant countries
Worldwide
Contact
Company: Strusoft AB
Address: Ovagen 1
SE-200 61 Limhamn
Sweden
Tel: +46 40 36 16 60
Fax: +46 40 36 16 65
Email:
Website: strusoft.com
Website: vip.strusoft.com
(At going to press, only in Swedish)
Graphisoft NV
Graphisoft Park 1,
1031 Budapest, Hungary
www.graphisoft.com
[1] U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN).
| Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development -
http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/buildings/gbintro.shtml
[2] According to Royal Australian Institute of Architects environmental policy
