The EPA rating is calculated from source energy use.ĭAYSIM is a daylighting analysis software that calculates the annual daylight availability in arbitrary buildings as well as the lighting energy use of automated lighting controls (occupancy sensors, photocells) compared to standard on/off switches.ĭaysim combines the backward raytracing software Radiance with a daylight coefficients approach. Site and source energy calculations are provided for both energy use intensity and total annual energy. Users may enter their own fuel mix electricity must be selected as one of the choices. The tool displays the percent electricity and natural gas defaults used to calculate design targets. The total annual energy use intensity for the target is based on the energy fuel mix typical in the region specified by the ZIP code.
The ZIP code is used to determine the climate conditions that the building would experience in a normal year (based on a 30-year climate average).
The required data inputs were found to be the primary drivers of energy use. The energy use intensity (EUI) generated by Target Finder reflects the distribution of energy performance in commercial buildings derived from 2003 CBECS. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Information Agency's 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) helps you establish energy targets for Architecture 2030.
In the case of ECOTECT, a site license was purchased and the majority of the students also purchased student copies from the software.ĮPA's Target Finder tool helps architects and building owners set aggressive, realistic energy targets and rate a building design's estimated energy use. In general however, all students had a favorable view of the tool after the seminar and many indicated they will utilize it in their future studios. On the other hand, while some students had no difficulty in learning ECOTECT, applying it to their projects, and taking advantage of its multiple analysis tools, others experienced some difficulty in acquiring the necessary skills and required additional support from the instructor and their colleagues. ECOTECT proved to be a very useful, effective, and flexible tool that allows student to graphically analysis several performance aspects of their designs and to easily modify their designs and assess the impact of these modifications of performance. In addition, ECOTECT models were used as a basis for daylighting simulation using RADIANCE. The seminar heavily used ECOTECT in several of the performance simulation and analysis tasks performed including basic modeling, solar access, solar control, daylighting, and thermal load analysis. A new web-based dynamic graphic tutorial explaining the Psychrometric Chart and how it applies to human thermal comfort and to HVAC systems design is also available on this web site.
Climate data is available for over two thousand locations from the EnergyPlus web site.
Each Guideline has a sketch illustrating how it applies. It calculates a set of the top 20 Design Guidelines based on your unique climate and the passive design strategies you selected on the Psychrometric Chart. It develops the kind of data incorporated in Watson and Labs "Climatic Building Design". The psychrometric analysis recommends the most appropriate passive design strategies as outlined in Givoni’s "Man Climate and Architecture". The “Wind Wheel” graphics shows velocity and direction correlated with temperature and humidity, and can be animated hourly or daily or monthly. 3-D plots show temperatures, humidity, radiation, and sky cover. This program graphically displays climate data in either metric or imperial units in dozens of ways useful to architects including monthly bar charts, timetable charts, and psychrometric charts, sun shading charts, and sun dial charts.