scholarly journals Benchmarking and screening new building energy models in the Toronto context

Author(s):  
Jennifer Harmer

Building energy modeling is a well-established field but there is a lack of research to support design guidance and energy benchmarking using simulated results. This study presents a methodology for collecting information about planned buildings in Toronto from uploaded building energy modelling files, to be used as a basis of comparison for future models. The methodology includes the development of an algorithm for automating the generation of baseline building models. Key building design and performance characteristics are identified for inclusion in a database of new buildings in Toronto, and a feedback mechanism, to provide design guidance through comparative analysis and program screening, is detailed. The resultant database can be used by individual building design teams, urban planners, or policy-makers, as they work together to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in Toronto through increased energy efficiency in the built environment.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Harmer

Building energy modeling is a well-established field but there is a lack of research to support design guidance and energy benchmarking using simulated results. This study presents a methodology for collecting information about planned buildings in Toronto from uploaded building energy modelling files, to be used as a basis of comparison for future models. The methodology includes the development of an algorithm for automating the generation of baseline building models. Key building design and performance characteristics are identified for inclusion in a database of new buildings in Toronto, and a feedback mechanism, to provide design guidance through comparative analysis and program screening, is detailed. The resultant database can be used by individual building design teams, urban planners, or policy-makers, as they work together to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in Toronto through increased energy efficiency in the built environment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Wendy Sunarya

<p>Site is an important factor in the building design process, where it is analysed to determine design strategies for responding the microclimate. It is also considered important in Building Energy Simulations (BES) where a weather file is used to represent the site location and its microclimate. However, many cases of BES in the design process use weather file from a nearby weather station rather than site specific microclimate. In fact, site microclimate can be affected by nearby parameters such as ground surface and vegetation, with unknown effects. In the Wellington, New Zealand context, micro-climates vary widely due to the local topography while suburban houses can be located on the side or bottom of a hill. These houses are likely to have different exposure to the sun and wind which can influence energy consumption for space heating.  Many studies about site-parameters impacts mainly focus on the vegetation and nearby buildings effect on microclimate. Only a few estimated the impact of site-parameters on building energy use and mostly their cases are in urban areas (flat terrain). Unfortunately, site parameters, such as altitude and slope, associated with the Wellington topography (hilly terrain) have never been examined. This thesis investigates the importance of site parameters on house heating energy modelling for the Wellington context. BES software, EnergyPlus, was used and explored to identify limitations in modelling site parameters. An attempt was made to solve these limitations through the integration with microclimate software. Three microclimate software programmes were reviewed: ENVI-met, UWG (Urban Weather Generator) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) software.  ENVI-met was selected to generate the local air temperature and relative humidity affected by site parameters, which was used for EnergyPlus weather-file modification. A parametric study of ENVI-met basic input with model evaluation was also conducted. The results of parametric test integrating ENVI-met with EnergyPlus showed that ENVI-met mostly produce insignificant impacts of site parameters on house heating energy, unlike the results found in the literature review. This is likely due to the cool weather conditions (winter in Wellington) used in simulation, which suggests that the idea of microclimate modelling using ENVI-met is not applicable for house heating energy modelling in the temperate, Wellington context.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed H. Elnabawi

There is increasing need to apply building information modeling (BIM) to low energy buildings, this includes building energy modeling (BEM). If a building energy model can be flawlessly generated from a BIM model, the energy simulation process can be better integrated within the design, can be more competent, and timesaving. However, concerns about both the reliability and integrity of the data transfer process and the interoperability between the BIM and BEM prevent any implementation of BIM-based energy modeling on a large scale. This study addresses the accuracy and integrity of BIM-based energy modeling by investigating how well Autodesk's Revit (BIM), in conjunction with two of the most used energy modeling programs (BEM) known as DesignBuilder and Virtual Environment (IES-ve), were integrated in terms of interoperability, including location and weather files, geometry, construction and materials, thermal zones, occupancy operating schedules, and HVAC systems. All misrepresented data during the interoperability process were identified, followed by benchmarking between the BIM-based energy modeling simulation outcomes and the actual energy consumption of the case study, to assess the reliability of the process. The investigation has revealed a number of interoperability issues regarding the BIM data input and BEM data interpretation. Overall, BIM-based energy modeling proved to be a promising tool for sustainable and low energy building design, however, the BIM to BEM process is a non-standardized method of producing building energy models as it varies from one modeler to another, and the BIM to BEM process. All these might slow down any possible application for the process and might cause some uncertainties for the professionals in the field applying it.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8250
Author(s):  
Avichal Malhotra ◽  
Simon Raming ◽  
Jérôme Frisch ◽  
Christoph van Treeck

Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) requires adequate geometrical information to represent buildings in a 3D digital form. However, open data models usually lack essential information, such as building geometries, due to a lower granularity in available data. For heating demand simulations, this scarcity impacts the energy predictions and, thereby, questioning existing simulation workflows. In this paper, the authors present an open-source CityGML LoD Transformation (CityLDT) tool for upscaling or downscaling geometries of 3D spatial CityGML building models. With the current support of LoD0–2, this paper presents the adapted methodology and developed algorithms for transformations. Using the presented tool, the authors transform open CityGML datasets and conduct heating demand simulations in Modelica to validate the geometric processing of transformed building models.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Wendy Sunarya

<p>Site is an important factor in the building design process, where it is analysed to determine design strategies for responding the microclimate. It is also considered important in Building Energy Simulations (BES) where a weather file is used to represent the site location and its microclimate. However, many cases of BES in the design process use weather file from a nearby weather station rather than site specific microclimate. In fact, site microclimate can be affected by nearby parameters such as ground surface and vegetation, with unknown effects. In the Wellington, New Zealand context, micro-climates vary widely due to the local topography while suburban houses can be located on the side or bottom of a hill. These houses are likely to have different exposure to the sun and wind which can influence energy consumption for space heating.  Many studies about site-parameters impacts mainly focus on the vegetation and nearby buildings effect on microclimate. Only a few estimated the impact of site-parameters on building energy use and mostly their cases are in urban areas (flat terrain). Unfortunately, site parameters, such as altitude and slope, associated with the Wellington topography (hilly terrain) have never been examined. This thesis investigates the importance of site parameters on house heating energy modelling for the Wellington context. BES software, EnergyPlus, was used and explored to identify limitations in modelling site parameters. An attempt was made to solve these limitations through the integration with microclimate software. Three microclimate software programmes were reviewed: ENVI-met, UWG (Urban Weather Generator) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) software.  ENVI-met was selected to generate the local air temperature and relative humidity affected by site parameters, which was used for EnergyPlus weather-file modification. A parametric study of ENVI-met basic input with model evaluation was also conducted. The results of parametric test integrating ENVI-met with EnergyPlus showed that ENVI-met mostly produce insignificant impacts of site parameters on house heating energy, unlike the results found in the literature review. This is likely due to the cool weather conditions (winter in Wellington) used in simulation, which suggests that the idea of microclimate modelling using ENVI-met is not applicable for house heating energy modelling in the temperate, Wellington context.</p>


Author(s):  
Maryam Zahabi ◽  
Patricia Machado ◽  
Mei Lau ◽  
Yulin Deng ◽  
Carl Pankok ◽  
...  

Although several studies have assessed the effect of business logo sign format on driver visual attention and performance, some concern has been expressed that findings may not be generalizable to other signage configurations. We conducted a driving simulation study to assess the effect of distance guide sign format on visual attention allocation, target detection accuracy, and driving performance considering driver demographics. Results revealed distance guide sign format, including random or distance-ordered presentation of destinations, to have no impact on driver visual attention, target identification, and vehicle control. However, elderly drivers had difficulty in identifying targets when destinations were presented in random order. In addition, elderly drivers exhibited conservative responses (i.e., reduced off-road visual attention and greater speed reductions) as compared to other age groups when exposed to distance guide signs. Findings support design guidance for on-road signage to account for driver demographics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-61
Author(s):  
Vinky Rahman ◽  
Muhammad Khairy Humaizy

The theater usually has an attractive form to attract the attention of visitors and also has good sound control in the auditorium so as not to cause sound distortion. Performances in Medan are still inadequate to accommodate international performances. Particularly in Medan, the enthusiasm of the community towards art tends to be high, but the facilities of the place lack to accommodate performances. Data collection methods are carried out by collecting primary data through a process of field comparative study and secondary data through literature studies & comparative studies. The design approach used in design studies are analyzing the physical, conditions around the site, potential, the limits that exist on the site, Site and environmental approaches are analysis of site conditions and the best solutions, the user approach is building analysis to meet the need for facilities and quality in accommodating the show, literature studies related to titles and themes and theories that support design ideas. The Metaphor is chosen as a truss design theme to convey the shape of building design by combining metaphorical forms of buildings and the prominence of the same metaphorical theme in the building to those who visit and see buildings to prevent sound distortions by using porous materials. Medan is a big city in Indonesia as a design area with consideration of a strategic location. It is expected that with the presence of this performance center, domestic and foreign tourists and especially Medan people themselves can enjoy the comfort and get to know traditional music and dance in Indonesia.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1080
Author(s):  
Mamdooh Alwetaishi ◽  
Omrane Benjeddou

The concern regarding local responsive building design has gained more attention globally as of late. This is due to the issue of the rapid increase in energy consumption in buildings for the purpose of heating and cooling. This has become a crucial issue in educational buildings and especially in schools. The major issue in school buildings in Saudi Arabia is that they are a form of prototype school building design (PSBD). As a result, if there is any concern in the design stage and in relation to the selection of building materials, this will spread throughout the region. In addition to that, the design is repeated regardless of the climate variation within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This research will focus on the influence of the window to wall ratio on the energy load in various orientations and different climatic regions. The research will use the energy computer tool TAS Environmental Design Solution Limited (EDSL) to calculate the energy load as well as solar gain. During the visit to the sample schools, a globe thermometer will be used to monitor the globe temperature in the classrooms. This research introduces a framework to assist architects and engineers in selecting the proper window to wall ratio (WWR) in each direction within the same building based on adequate natural light with a minimum reliance on energy load. For ultimate WWR for energy performance and daylight, the WWR should range from 20% to 30%, depending on orientation, in order to provide the optimal daylight factor combined with building energy efficiency. This ratio can be slightly greater in higher altitude locations.


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