Introduction
Concerns about profilgate energy use and gaseous emissions have occupeied the attention of scientists and policy makers alike. Twenty years of research effort has produced a concensus understanding of the impacts of energy use and the approaches to reduce this impact (primarily energy efficiency and the deployment of renewable energy technologies).
Consideration of energy in relation to the build environment reveals that in developed countries somewhere in the region of 50% of alll delivered energy is associated with the built environment and of this some considerable portion (more than 60% in the UK for example) is consumed to moderate indoor environmental conditions. Thus, retrofit and innovatory design measures are concerned with the management and potential conservation of significant amounts of energy. By effective implementation of such measures, the commonly agreed and achievable target reduction is around 30%, with more optimistic expectations - up to 70% - for buildings incorporating advanced technology features.
However, such strategies and technologies have not yet been widely adopted by the construction industry. The majority of buildings are still designed without energy-related considerations beyond those enforced by energy codes. One reason for this is that practitioners do not have the means to assess the impact of new strategies and technologies during the design stage.
Traditionally, designers have relied on indicative calculation methods based on empirical considerations or simplifying assumptions such as steady-state behaviour or perfect control. Such methods have many deficiencies and are not explicit nor accurate enough in terms of energy evaluation. A dependable energy performance assessment requires the use of detailed algorithms that take into account specific attributes of the building and its context. These algorithms and the lengthly calculations required to estimate year-round energy behaviour have necessitated the development of building design tools.
A wide range of tools are now available to help practitioners to design more energy efficient buildings. These range from simple manual methods to advanced computer-based applications. With so many options , deciding on the best one for a particular application is non-trivial.
This course will provide you with an insight into the different tool types and the modelling issues to which they give rise. Please note that the inclusion of a particular program tool does not imply an endorsement. Where appropriate links are made to other sites where particular programs are described.
The design tools considered here may be used to assess the energy/environmental aspects of performance at the different stages of the design process. While they may be used to evaluate the consequencies of a particular action, and thereby inform the design process, they are generally unable to suggest a particular design solution. Such tools will therefore be of limited value to those practitioners who are unable or unwilling to compare alternative approaches.
The following list indicates a range of design tool types as considered within this course.
ESRU has developed energy modelling and simulation courseware that may be followed in self-learning mode.
One possible categorisation, as extracted from the following publication, is reproduced here.
Robinson D 1996 Energy model usage in building design: A qualitative assessment
Building Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 17(2) 89-95
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT Method | Anglia Daylight | Esi-Check | NHER/BREDEM | QUICK/NORMA | HEVA-COMP | Facet APACHE | SERI-RES | Tas | ESP-r |
Where categories 1-4 imply simple, 8-10 detailed and 5-7 transitionary, i.e. they neither simulate reality simply or in a detailed manner.
Throughout the course, design tool application is illustrated by means of case studies. When considering a specific case you should ask yourself some pertinent questions such as:
It is likely that no one answer is the universally correct one. That is, the answer to such questions and context (and tool) dependent.