[BLDG-SIM] getting the whole design team into the performance assessment game.

[Calbert, Jeffrey M CAR]

I have been reading with great interest the discussion above.  I believe
many are looking at the topic from the wrong perspective.  Historically, the
best building projects have resulted when there is a partnership between the
architect and the design engineer (and other building construction
disciplines).  Although I do not work for a consulting engineer, I spend all
my time working with them, and I find many of them frustrated because they
are not brought into the consortium until the building architectural plans
are nearly complete.  The result is that critical design decisions that
impact the efficiency of the building are already made without the input of
the most capable expert in this area.

An HVAC design engineer should be involved with the project at inception so
he can serve as a resource to the architect and help direct the building
creation with an eye toward efficiency.  Most consulting engineers have
access to any number of analysis programs that they use routinely in this
kind of work.  Many of those programs use data already defined in the
preliminary load estimating modeling (as appropriate).  While the energy
simulation side is oriented to a different need than load estimating, much
of the building geometry is the same for both.  In reality, the amount of
work involved in performing a full energy simulation now is very little
compared to a few years ago, especially with the computing power now
available.  These tools can handle any size project and are very accurate in
the hands of a practitioner.  They can be used progressively as the project
moves forward and the inevitable changes occur. 

I believe this is a better way to achieve project energy efficiency than
looking for "simplified shortcuts" for the architect to use.

Regards,


J. M. Calbert
Carrier Corporation
Regional Manager
Commercial Systems Marketing
   Phone:  317.821.3031
Facsimile:  317.821.9072


-----Original Message-----
From: Murray Milne [mailto:milne at ucla.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 8:03 PM
To: BLDG-SIM at gard.com
Subject: [BLDG-SIM] getting the whole design team into the performance
assessment game.


To reply to Monjur M Mourshed:

As an architect, I agree with your comments. Because so many of the 
decisions that determine a building's energy performance are made at the 
very beginning of the design process, architects need a 'day-one' tool.  I 
think it is possible to design much more intuitive interfaces to 
sophisticated calculation algorithms.

For example, we have just released an "architect friendly" energy 
simulation tool. It emphasized the building envelope, windows, shading, 
orientation, etc., allwing you to draw in a floor plan and click and drag 
windows onto each elevation. But behind this interface is an 8760 hour heat 
balance engine that was validated against DOE2 and Blast etc. using the 
ASHRAE Standard 140-2001. Currently it works only for single zone buildings 
up to 120'x120', and the HVAC system definition is very generic. It is 
intended for residential ratepayers of Southern California Edison, but the 
web site shows how to use it for other climates and other building types. 
It is free from www.aud.ucla.edu/heed  so you can take a look to see if 
this is closer to the kind of intuitive tool that you think architects need.

Murray Milne, UCLA

  wrote:
>Quick note to clarify some points in Dr. Hand's reply
>
>[Dr. Hand]
>I have been following the dialog on getting Architects interested in and
>competent with simulation.
>
>My View:
>In my opinion, Architects (being one myself) are more than interested to
>use Energy Simulation tools provided that they are available and they
>can be used intuitively. To perform basic simulations that is required
>in early stages (before HVAC comes to the scene), architects are well
>equipped with required knowledge and concepts.
>
>[Dr. Hand]
>We do this via supported technology deployments which put computers
>with relevant simulation software and simulation staff into design
>practices (from one-man-bands to multi-national practices).
>
>My View:
>I appreciate very much these attempts at mitigating industry drawbacks
>by advocating ad-hoc concepts like STD. But it seems, we as a whole
>industry failing recurrently to understand one important fact: we need a
>tool that doesn't need another specialist to explain and run. Architects
>want a tool that can be used without asking BSE (Building Services
>Engineer) what a particular parameter means; simulation can be run
>without leaving CAD tool and the same for result visualization. For
>detailed HVAC design assistance from specialists will be sought out, but
>for basic understanding of the building's performance is it worth to ask
>BSE's help?
>
>I do understand that Architects (in Academia) need to conduct research
>on how Energy Simulation tools can be used and adopted to the design
>process and they also need to sort out interface issues.
>
>All the technology is available (to do what architects want) right now.
>Nobody seems to take an initiative to develop reliable commercial
>software. From my experience in using different Energy Simulation tools
>I can tell, you need to know how the software works than what you want
>to do. That may be ok for academic purposes as like mine but it is not
>feasible for a practising architect.
>
>70's to 00's: that's 3 decades -> Energy Conservation and Sustainability
>is being emphasized. How far did we achieve except for a few buildings
>in magazines?
>
>Regards
>
>Monjur Mourshed
>http://www.ecaad.com/monjur
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: postman at gard.com [mailto:postman at gard.com] On Behalf Of Jon Hand
>Sent: 12 February 2003 20:08
>To: BLDG-SIM at gard.com
>Subject: [BLDG-SIM] getting the whole design team into the performance
>assessment game.
>
>
>I have been following the dialog on getting Architects interested in and
>competent with simulation. Members of the list might like to see another
>way design professionals in Europe are exploring simulation by visiting
>the Scottish Energy Systems Group site <http://www.sesg.strath.ac.uk>.
>SESG is the Scottish affiliate of IBPSA.
>
>We do this via supported technology deployments which put computers
>with relevant simulation software and simulation staff into design
>practices (from one-man-bands to multi-national practices) so that
>practitioners can better evaluate simulation and/or increase their
>skills in simulation in the context of actual projects.
>
>Last year we managed dozens of deployments for our members, provided
>training for even more practitioners on a range of simulation tools.
>Not only is simulation is getting used, vendors are selling quite
>a bit of software. If you are interested, the web page has instructions
>for getting the SESG newsletter.
>
>-Jon Hand, SESG
>
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