10 Easy Steps to Conceptual Energy Analysis

As many of you already know, I’m a big Ecotect Analysis fan. Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure (well, mostly a pleasure) of helping hundreds of designers in the US and parts of Europe use this tool to improve the performance of their buildings. That being said, I’m also the first to admit that the process of creating an efficient BIM that can be used for energy analysis is far from perfect. At times it’s time consuming, and other times, it’s just frustrating. Even after getting the hang of it, the process could certainly be improved.

Well, the good news is that our great friends at Autodesk have been hard at work to improve this process and to lower the barrier to entry to start using analysis on all of your designs. The tool they’ve developed is the Conceptual Energy Analysis plug in and the best news is that it runs right inside of Revit!

I’m sure you’ve already heard of it, and maybe even checked out some of the videos Autodesk has posted on Youtube. But, just to show you how easy it is to start using this great tool, I’ve put together a list of 10 easy steps to jump start your building analysis.

This application makes it a snap to upload a properly formed thermal model to the Autodesk Cloud, making use of the Green Building Studio web service to perform whole building energy analysis but without the pain of submitting it to GBS yourself. The analysis is fast, easy, and turns out some awesome charts and graphics to help validate your design decisions. Get up to the Subscription Center right now and give this tool a whirl!

There you have it. I know I told you there were 10 steps. The 11th pic is not a step — that’s your results! Enjoy them. See, I told you it was easy…

Bonus Tip:

You can use Ecotect with the model the Conceptual Energy Analysis tool builds. Simply click Export and choose gbXML. Import it into Ecotect and you’re ready get down to business with an incredibly clean and well constructed thermal model!

1. Export to gbXML from the Results and Compare dialog.
2. Import the gbXML into Ecotect and perform your analysis with an incredibly clean, efficient, and well constructed thermal model!

Amazing! Thanks, Autodesk.

My Article in the AIA Journal – “What’s Keeping Architects from Embracing Energy Simulation?” Overview

Well, I’m happy to announce that the article I wrote on challenges that architects face while performing energy analysis has been published in the AIA Journal. Pretty cool! It’s actually the first part in a 3 part series and I intend to get some feedback from readers to help guide the next articles so that we can overcome these challenges. Energy simulation isn’t just something that MP&E engineers should be concerned with. According to a recent article in JBIM Magazine, many architects are already performing energy analysis on a good portion of their projects, but based on my experience with firms throughout the west, this doesn’t appear to be the case. With tools like Ecotect, Green Building Studio, IES, eQuest, and new capabilities of Revit, architects have the power of doing some really useful calculations. Check out the article and be sure to leave some comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Introducing Ecotect Analysis Training Series

What a busy Autodesk University this year! I’d like to thank all the attendees of my 2 sold out Ecotect classes. What a great time! It’s obvious that there is a lot of excitement about this great product and we’ve been getting requests from all over the country asking one thing – “Where can we go to get Ecotect training?” Well, I’m happy to announce the launch of a series of classes that CADsoft Consulting is offering starting in January that will get you up and running in no time. We’re kicking things off with 3 classes, instructed by me, Patrick Villella. They will be web based, so you can attend them from anywhere in the country. They will be live, though, so you will be able to ask questions and get answers as we proceed through the topics. Class 1 is an intro, and classes 2 and 3 will be hands on. You’ll be able to download the custom datasets and will be given time during the session to work through the exercises on your own workstation, while being able to ask questions as we go. Plus, you can attend from the comfort of your own office or home! Click the links for cost info or call up CADsoft Consulting at 480.820.0408 to ask about package pricing.

Each class will be 90 minutes in length.

January 15th – 90 minute Webinar

Class 1 will be an Introduction to Ecotect to analyze building performance. We’ll cover the following topics:

• Overview of Ecotect
• How to model in Revit for GBxml Export to Ecotect
• Overview of calculations that can be performed in Ecotect
• Possible workflows and steps for improving building performance

Register for Introduction to Ecotect to analyze building performance.

January 29th – 90 minute Hands-On webinar

Class 2 will be an in-depth look at Evaluating Material Selection Using Ecotect. We’ll cover the following topics:

• Establishing baseline heating & cooling loads
• Visualizing which materials and orientations need improvement
• Changing materials
• Analyzing improved material performance
• Creating custom materials

Register for Evaluating Material Selection Using Ecotect.

February 12th – 90 minute Hands-On Webinar

Class 3 will be an in-depth look at Evaluating Daylight and Artificial Lighting Using Ecotect. We’ll cover the following topics:

• Importing DXF files
• Establishing sky settings
• Analyzing daylight using analysis grid
• Creating lights
• Creating light fixtures using materials
• Importing and using IES files for electric lights
• Meeting lighting footcandle requirements
• Understanding the pros and cons of using Ecotect for LEED calculations

Register for Evaluating Daylight and Artificial Lighting Using Ecotect.

Phoenix Green Roundtable highlights

This morning was the August Green Roundtable meeting, considering the topic “Greenbuild 09: Understanding
the New Green Economy”

Pics from Green Roundtable 7-11-09

As usual, this was a great networking event for anyone involved in any sort of green initiatives. I was there to meet with primarily with architects and designers interested in learning how they can use software technology to assess energy, daylight, and resource requirements of their buildings. I had the pleasure of meeting with several architects who are very much involved in the effort to design buildings that are in line with the goals of LEED and the USGBC at large. Products from Autodesk like Ecotect Analysis and Green Building Studio have green designers really excited!

It was also pretty cool to see how many other types of business were represented here. There were several people from the public sector or government, who are involved in grant writing and financing for green/sustainable projects, plumbing companies that focus on products and materials that conserve water, paint companies that only use products with low VOC counts and have low environmental impact, and even cleaning companies that only use cleaning products that are not hazardous to people or the local ecosystems. I really like seeing all these diverse groups come together to support the green movement.

Today we heard Melissa Kemp, the Chapter Growth Consultant for the West Region of the U. S. Green Building Council, speak about the benefits of joining your local chapter of the USGBC. As you may know, for a company to join the national USGBC, it costs and is open only to companies, not individuals. However, everyone is encouraged to join the local chapter — it’s open to individuals, it has tons of benefits, and IT’S FREE! Sign up for the Arizona Chapter of USGBC.

Next up, Beth Vershure, Arizona Host Committee Executive Director, USGBC Arizona, Greenbuild 2009, gave a presentation about the upcoming national green building convention that will be hosted here in Phoenix. This is going to be an incredible event to be a part of! Beth has a wonderful background in non-profits, fund raising, and public television and she emphasized that it’s important for all of us in the green community to help get the word out there about the benefits of this event. Even when an event is very heavily marketed, probably only half of the Phoenix population is aware of it. Spread the word! http://www.greenbuildexpo.org/

Shading Device Wizard in Ecotect Analysis 2010

I have to say, the more I use Ecotect Analysis, the more amazed I am with it. The technical analysis that this software is doing behind the scenes is phenomenal, but the way that it visualizes this data into an understandable and graphically interesting way to get the point across to non building science engineers is a thing of beauty! While the interface is quite different from other Autodesk native products, I find that getting used to the difference in navigation and such was pretty simple.

That being said, I have run into a few things that seem not to function quite the way you would expect them to. The Shading Device Wizard is one of these items. To begin with, it is a wonderful to help create a shade structure that is specifically designed to shade a window (or anything, really) during a specific time of the day. It’s fast and easy to use. Here’s one thing you should be aware of though:

The “What type of shade do you want” question in the wizard seems to be completely ineffectual. Instead, make sure to set the Project Details ‘Shading Device Type’ option in Step 5 of the wizard and you’ll be good to go.

Here are some pics to illustrate the point:

Here you see that we’ve selected option 4, ‘Surrounding Shade with Verticals’ as our shading device method. Hit the ‘Next’ button, though, and you’ll see that this choice doesn’t stick.

Yup. We selected option 4, but option 3 gets used, instead. No worries, just make sure to always adjust your choice here by using the drop down.

Here’s what we get: a perfectly optimized shade with vertical sides.

A thing of beauty in only a few seconds. Have fun, everyone!