Energy Analysis | What's the Word on BIM?

Category: Energy Analysis

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!

: 01 – Create an In-place mass of your building form

: 02 – Add Levels as needed

: 03 – Create Mass Floors

: 04 – Choose Energy Settings – Create Energy Model

: 05 – Set Project Location using Google Map interface

: 06 – Show Mass Zones and Shades

: 07 – Log In to Subscription Center

: 08 – Enter Username and Password

: 09 – Submit the model to the cloud for Analysis

: 10 – Click Results and Compare

: 11 – Enjoy your results!

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!

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

Amazing! Thanks, Autodesk.

2010, 2011, Building Simulation, ecotect, Energy Analysis, Green Building, Green Building Studio, LEED, Revit, Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Sustainability, Tips & Tricks | Patrick Villella | December 20, 2010 5:47 pm | Comments (0)

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

Open publication

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!