PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF BUILDINGS

UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO BUILDING PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Building performance evaluation (BPE) involves the inspection of buildings one to five years
after their completion, and assessment of the extent to which a given building has met its
design goals for resource consumption and occupant satisfaction.

The primary purpose of BPE is to improve design practice and to ensure the
continuous improvement of design methods, through the provision of feedback to designers
on the effectiveness of their design choices. BPE is also useful to property managers,
building operators, and building occupants through its collation of detailed measurements
and occupant feedback, which highlight which building features are operating optimally,
and which features have the potential to be enhanced.

Evaluation involves interviews with building occupants and operators, satisfaction survey
of building occupants, the examination of utility bills, and quantitative and qualitative analysis
of the building’s thermal comfort, air quality, lighting, and acoustics. Information is then used
to compare actual building performance with anticipated design performance, with the
process culminating in the provision of valuable feedback to building designers, operators,
and owners.

1.1 Emerging role of performance Evaluation in Building Design and Master planning
1.1.1 Design for sustainability

The United Nations Conference on Environment defined Sustainability as the

concept of carrying capacity. Earth’s population is growing exponentially, placing ever
increasing demand on nature’s capacity to carry the load. One of the most challenging
tasks today is to ensure that development does not exceed the carrying capacity of the
natural system.

In architecture, sustainable design is about developing built forms – buildings and

urban spaces that are tuned to their context, culture and climate, and to the natural
resources of the place.

Various building rating systems have developed; these have initially focused on
building design rather than architectural objects ‘as built’. In the process of achieveing
certification buildings are awarded points for good intentions rather than for evidence of
actual post occupancy performance. In this context, the following questions must be
addressed:

2 Where do buildings that claim to be green or sustainable rank on a scale relative to

benchmark buildings of the same type?
3 How do these buildings contribute to sustainable development in terms of demand for
energy and natural materials?
4 Do these buildings provide a high level of thermal comfort for their users?

Any building that claims to be recognized as great architecture should also qualify as a high
performance building in terms of energy efficiency.

Although energy efficiency is only one of the indicators used to evaluate architectural design
for sustainability, it is still one of the most significant indicators. The main goal of the
Architecture 2030 initiative is stated as ‘reducing energy use in buildings’.
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What is Architecture 2030 challenge?

For the purpose of this course we define Performance mainly as annual specific energy use.
We need to also understand performance as a form generating design principle. In addition
to increased energy efficiency, high performance buildings should provide comfortable and
enjoyable work environments for their users, and should be maintained within a reasonable
budget.

 Energy performance databases

While evaluating energy performance of buildings, those making the evaluation should
compare the type of building to a baseline. No international or national standards for energy
performance have been established but several countries have introduced stricter standards
in their building codes.

Energy efficiency standards by building type have been developed for Norway in 2007,
made a law and implemented by 2009. Predicted annual specific energy use to be 100 -140
kilo watt hrs/sq.m for residential and educational buildings.

 Indian Scenario

India is one of the largest economies in the world consuming equally large quantity of
energy, as shown in figure 1. Buildings account for more than 30% of the total electricity
consumption in India, the second highest share of consumption after industries. Estimates
reveal that total built-up area will increase rapidly, as nearly 66% f the commercial yet to be
built in 2030. Adoption of energy efficiency practices and cutting edge technologies can help
to shift towards low-carbon economy.

Energy consumption in the building sector is a function the type of construction, usage
pattern, the climatic region and the energy consuming devices installed in the buildings.
Different types of energy end-use in buildings such as lighting, space heating, space cooling,
plug-in loads and appliances all together account for the overall energy consumption pattern
of the building as shown .

Energy consumption, not only depends on the type of the end use appliances but also on
the operational efficiency and maintenance of these end use appliances. Building design
and material can have a significant impact on the energy consumption levels of a particular
end-use application. For instance, the overall energy consumption pattern of a typical home

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depends heavily on appliance efficiency.

In a commercial building, the overall energy consumption of the building gets significantly
affected by the design and selection of the building material and glazing along with the
choice of appliances and HVAC systems [5].

Figure 4. Growth of Building sector in India

The building sector India is experiencing a very high growth about 8% per year due to
emergence of IT sector.. The commercial building sector currently contributes to

about 659 Million m2 and even at conservative growth rate of 5-6% per year. The
commercial building space is expected to grow to 1932 Million sqm. by year 2030 at the rate
of 38 million m2 per year as shown in figure 4.

III. BUILDING BOOM IN INDIA

While construction sector is one of the key drivers of modern economy, energy intense
buildings are the ambassadors of modern world. Energy consumption in these buildings has
been forecasted to rise consistently. With population over 1.2 billion, India, is consistently
adding floor space in a big way, see figure 4. India‘s

zooming economy was spurred by its liberalization policy introduced during 1996. India is a
leading destination for IT and IT-enabled services. Many software companies, software
consulting firms and business process outsourcing firms have established their offices in
India, making an important destination for multinational companies (MNCs). Demand for
office space in India is fuelled by its rapid development in IT sector combined with massive
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migration to cities has dramatically increased the need for energy to supply to its growing
population and businesses.

Realizing the potential savings that the energy efficiency that would bring, Government of
India brought in Energy Conservation Act (2001) and established the Bureau of Energy
Efficiency (BEE), a National-level bureau that is responsible for establishing energy
efficiency labeling and standards for appliances and for establishing energy conservation
standards in building codes. It is estimated that ECBC compliant buildings may consume
about 40% less energy than conventionally practiced buildings in India and nationwide
enforcement of the building code could result.

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 What is the scenario in other countries?

US Energy use in 1999 – office building consumption is 320.

Some European countries state goals as ‘quarter’…reduce by 25% of actual consumption for
new buildings.

When we consider the occupancy and population density, annual energy use per person can
be calculated and comparisons can be made. Two office building with similar energy
consumption and differing occupant densities will show different values for annual energy
use per person.

Certification, Energy efficiency and market value

EU is now developing a legislation that requires owners of large buildings to report energy
use. This information will be made available to public.

1.2 Performance Audit Rating Systems

1 GRIHA

GRIHA is an acronym for Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. GRIHA is a
Sanskrit word meaning – ‘Abode’. Human Habitats (buildings) interact with the environment
in various ways. Throughout their life cycles, from construction to operation and then
demolition, they consume resources in the form of energy, water, materials, etc. and emit
wastes either directly in the form of municipal wastes or indirectly as emissions from
electricity generation.

GRIHA attempts to:

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1. Minimize a building’s resource consumption, waste generation, and overall

ecological impact to within certain nationally acceptable limits / benchmarks.
2. Quantify aspects such as energy consumption, waste generation, renewable energy
adoption, etc. so as to manage, control and reduce the same to the best possible
extent.
3. Assess the performance of their building against certain nationally acceptable
benchmarks.
4. Evaluate the environmental performance of a building holistically over its entire life
cycle, thereby providing a definitive standard for what constitutes a ‘green building’.
5. Strike a balance between the established practices and emerging concepts,
both national and international.

Evolution of GRIHA

The rapid increase in Indian population and growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has
given rise to an enormous demand for buildings with a subsequent pressure on availability of
resources. Another key challenge for the built-environment of Indian cities is the diminishing
availability of water for urban areas.

In order to be sustainable, the environmental pressures of increased demand for resources

coupled with a rapidly changing climate are being addressed by policy makers at various
levels. Several policy and regulatory mechanisms to address the urban challenges,
implemented through national plans and programmes have been devised.

The Ministries and agencies at the Centre have designed frameworks such as the
Environmental Clearance to ensure efficiency in resource use for large projects (i.e.
more than 20,000 sq m built up area), the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC)
applicable to air conditioned commercial buildings with connected load more than
100 kW and the Solar Buildings Programme for Energy Efficient Buildings, for
implementation by the designated State agencies.

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The basic features of GRIHA

The system has been developed to help ‘design and evaluate’ new buildings (buildings
that are still at the inception stages). A building is assessed based on its predicted
performance over its entire life cycle – inception through operation. The stages of the life
cycle that have been identified for evaluation are:

 Pre-construction stage: (intra- and inter-site issues like proximity to public

transport, type of soil, kind of land, where the property is located, the flora and fauna
on the land before construction activity starts, the natural landscape and land
features).

 Building planning and construction stages: (issues of resource conservation and

reduction in resource demand, resource utilization efficiency, resource recovery and
reuse, and provisions for occupant health and well-being). The prime resources that
are considered in this section are land, water, energy, air, and green cover.

 Building operation and maintenance stage: (issues of operation and maintenance

of building systems and processes, monitoring and recording of energy consumption,
and occupant health and well-being, and also issues that affect the global and local
environment).

The benefits

Some of the benefits of a green design to a building owner, user, and the society as a
whole are as follows:

 Reduced energy consumption without sacrificing the comfort levels

 Reduced destruction of natural areas, habitats, and biodiversity, and reduced soil
loss from erosion etc.

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 Reduced air and water pollution (with direct health benefits)

 Reduced water consumption

 Limited waste generation due to recycling and reuse

 Reduced pollution loads

 Increased user productivity

 Enhanced image and marketability

CASE STUDY Suzlon One Earth – A Design Marvel

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2 BREAM

BREEAM is the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment

Method for buildings and large scale developments. It sets the standard for best practice
in sustainable design. Which countries use BREEAM?

BREEAM is used to assess buildings and large scale developments in many countries
around the world. In several countries (e.g. UK, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Norway,
Sweden) National Scheme Operators operate country specific versions of BREEAM

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How BREEAM works

BREEAM rewards performance above regulation which delivers environmental, comfort

or health benefits. BREEAM awards points or ‘Credits’ and groups the environmental
impacts as follows:

1. Energy: operational energy and carbon dioxide (CO2)

2. Management: management policy, commissioning,
3. site management and procurement
4. Health and Wellbeing: indoor and external
5. issues (noise, light, air, quality etc)
6. Transport: transport-related CO2
7. and location related factors
8. Water consumption and efficiency
9. Materials: embodied impacts of building materials, including
10. lifecycle impacts like embodied carbon dioxide
11. Waste: construction resource efficiency and operational
12. waste management and minimisation
13. Pollution: external air and water pollution
14. Land Use: type of site and building footprint

Ecology: ecological value, conservation and enhancement of the site

The total number of points or credits gained in each section is multiplied by an

environmental weighting factor which takes into account the relative importance of each
section. The total number of points or credits gained in each section is multiplied by an
environmental weighting factor which takes into account the relative importance of each
section. Section scores are then added together to produce a single overall score.

Once the overall score for the building is known this is translated into a rating on a scale
of:
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- Pass

- Good

- Very Good

- Excellent

- Outstanding

A star rating from 1 to 5 stars is also provided:

Country-specific BREEAM schemes

BREEAM engages directly with selected organisations, assisting them in developing

their own national sustainability assessment method. National schemes are adapted to
local social, cultural and climatic conditions, translated in the local language with local
assessors and aligned with the country’s building regulations.

Country-specific local schemes that are BREEAM affiliated are owned and developed by
a Scheme Operator. The Schemes developed by National Scheme Operators can take
any format as long as they comply with the requirements established by the Code for a
Sustainable Built Environment.

Standard for the local context

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1.3 Architectural Computation and Performance Audit

A systematic approach to energy performance and thermal comfort in existing buildings can
be obtained by analyzing how great buildings work and how they can act as prototypes for
well designed architectural objects of high performance.

Careful investigation of actual performance of buildings will be a tool for the future – for
improving buildings by reducing and ultimately eliminating the negative impact of designed
objects on the environment. Performance here can be defined as annual specific energy
use.

This process, performance audit can be organized in the following steps:

Buildings designed for sustainability must simultaneously address two issues: the climate at
the location and user comfort and satisfaction. The concept of bioclimatic design where
both comfort and climate take prominence (Olgay 1963) is a valid approach in this context.

1 Climate conditions
1 Climate data
 Climate Classification systems Koppen System -1918, Olgay – Bioclimatic
Design 1967 classifies as 4 main zones
 This gives broad guidelines but a careful investigation of local climate is
unavoidable.
 Three main phases to understand climate conditions at a particular building
location.:
1. Obtain Accurate weather data
2. Climate analysis for seasons and strategies
3. Redefine design strategies

High performance buildings are characterized by their ability to respond

to the local climate by using natural sources of energy to reduce overall
use of energy imported to the site.
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Energy conservation-natural sources of energy by design-additional energy

sources and systems to supplement basic passive architecturally integrated
systems.

Climate data needed – latitude, Longitude, Climatic Zone

TMY (Typical Meteorological Year) files is the most common format for
weather file – it contains information on the 8760 hrs in a typical year.

Climate data is observational data that’s selected to represent typical conditions. It is

based on historical averages, usually over the span of 30 years. The data is altered
so that it represents typical conditions. However, the data does account for peaks
and swings typical of the climate. This data is often given in TMY format (Typical
Meteorological Year) and includes hourly datapoints. The data usually comes from
measured values at weather stations, which are often either at airports or maintained
by private groups or individuals.

Weather data is from a specific day and time. This is not the data that predictive
building energy simulations are based on. However, actual data can be used in
simulations of “as-built” buildings and compared to actual energy use to produce a
calibrated model.

2 Climate analysis
 Identify 3 to 5 periods that represent typical seasonal climate conditions
 Each period covers 5 to 7 days
 Eg…winter, early spring, early summer, monsoon.. Temperature and solar radiation
graphs analysed hour by hour or day by day.
 Next, extract passive design strategies from information displayed
graphically.eg…abundant solar radiation in summer can be used to heat spaces
through passive design features such as south facing glazing and internal thermal
mass.
3 Design strategies

The process of developing design strategies takes climate analysis one step further –
from understanding climate to understanding how climate response can influence the
design of high performance building.

The key here is to develop location specific strategies for building designs for
sustainability. It therefore becomes evident that analysis goes beyond mere comfort and
climate.

Eg: Building Envelopes can make buildings behave differently than what can be
expected from analysis of climate data. Hence temperature swings, solar radiation and
heat flow during a seasonal period should be analysed.

Site Analysis – Horizon Shading Data

Building Documentation

1. Construction Documents and Specifications

2. Structural and Mechanical Systems

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3. Plans, Sections Elevations

4. To study the following Building Characteristics:
5. Window Orientation and Size
6. Glazing Properties
7. Amount of thermal mass exposed to interior
8. Shading Devices
9. Insulation values
10. Roof Types
11. Ventilation principles

pts

Testing Claims – Predicted Performance vs Actual Performance

Design team list. a number of qualifications to be met for performance goals to be

realised

When predictions are generated from modeling a building in an energy simulation

program on the computer assumptions are made on:

1. Occupancy schedule of the building

2. Number of people using the building
3. How building systems are managed

Eg…mileage of two cars

What is included in the predicted annual energy use? HVAC.

What is excluded: elevators, exterior lighting, cooking equipment, plug loads etc.

AS BUILT

On Site Sources of Information

Utility Bills/Records broken down into time interval and energy source. Breakdowns on
end use are available very rarely. Though BMS is advanced, historical data is not
handled very well.

4 issues need to be addressed:

1. There is a need for sub-metering so that data can be provided with breakdowns on
end use categories in addition to time and energy source breakdowns

5 Building Energy Management systems must be equipped with sensors, software and
hardware necessary to store historical performance data
6 Owners of Non Residential Buildings must be required to permit access to the energy
data use for their buildings, if necessary by new legislation.

Experimental Evaluation:

 Smoke Test – Air flow and ventilation patterns studied

 Infrared Thermometer – surface temperatures

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 Handheld light meter –light levels

 Digital Photogrphy – light transmission
 Data loggers and sensors

What If:

What If scenarios are a tool to test drive multiple virtual models of the building design before
wasting any resources on materials. What if scenarios can significantly improve the quality of
the design process and consequently contribute to improvements in the built environment by
developing new prototypes based on existing high performance buildings.

Experimental Methods are predominantly used when investigating building energy

performance. The application and appropriateness of methods should be analysed, there is
no single method to investigate building performance

Explananatory Studies (Modeling)

A Model is a simplified representation of the real world

Step 13: Identify Scenarios

Step 14:Run Simulations

Step 15: Report Content: Deliverables

1.3.1 General Energy Audit procedure

There are three levels of energy audit: a basic overview, a survey and detailed analysis.

Level 1: Consumption benchmark. A Level 1 audit evaluates the overall energy

consumption of a site to determine whether energy use is reasonable or excessive, and
provides initial benchmarks so the effect of energy measures can be tracked and evaluated.
It may be in the form of a desktop study, but needs to have sufficient information to
determine the site’s overall level of efficiency. It is expected to give an overview providing
rough orders of savings and costs, with accuracy of figures generally within ±40 per cent.

Level 2: Preliminary assessment. A Level 2 audit identifies the sources of energy, the
amount of energy supplied and what it is used for. It also identifies areas where savings may
be made,recommends measures, and provides a statement of costs and potential savings.
This energy use survey is expected to provide a preliminary assessment of costs and
savings, with accuracy generally within 20 per cent.

Level 3: Economic analysis. This top level audit provides a detailed analysis of energy
usage, the savings that can be made and the cost of achieving those savings. It may cover
the whole site or may concentrate on an individual item, such as a single industrial process
or one of the services. The report often forms the justification for substantial investment by
the owner or an energy performance contractor and is expected to provide a firm estimate of
savings and costs. Detailed economic analysis is required, with accuracy within +10 per cent
for costs and -10 per cent for benefits.

An audit can be conducted by an energy manager trained in the task or by an external

energy-auditing consultant.

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Regardless, the basic steps outlined on the following pages should be understood. three
levels of energy audit: a basic overview, a survey and detailed analysis.

PREPARING THE WAY

Before starting an audit, it is best to compile a comprehensive set of existing site and energy

data. This must include:

■ site plan and building drawings, and an inventory of major plant and equipment;

■ 24 months of electricity, gas and fuel accounts

■ activity and/or production levels

Once complete, the assessment will provide a greater insight into the organisation’s energy
use and help decide whether further studies or an external auditor are required.

The work undertaken during an audit may include:

■ investigating the usage of all types of energy using equipment within the building, complex
or plant and energy consumed;

■ identifying the energy usage of all major heating and cooling applications and its
percentage against total energy use;

■ identifying cost-effective measures to improve the efficiency of energy use;

■ estimating the potential energy savings, indicative budget costs and payback periods for
each recommended action; and

■ reviewing energy management strategies, including monitoring systems and evaluation

process.

REPORT and RECOMMENDATIONS

To make an energy audit worthwhile, the recommendations from the audit report must be
incorporated into the energy management action plan. Its scope and detail will depend upon

the resources available. The plan should focus on energy saving practices and new

The results of an energy audit must be compiled into a clear and concise energy report. A
detailed report. The key elements include:

■ executive summary with recommendations in a priority order and estimates of

implementation costs and payback periods;

■ relevant plant and process data;

■ equipment data with measurements or estimates of the energy consumption for individual
plant items;

■ actual energy consumption records;

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■ energy use analysis in graphical form;

■ details of energy efficiency improvements;

■ comparison of actual consumption with analysis of estimated results from recommended

actions; and

■ recommendations on energy management strategies, such as monitoring systems and

review process.

1.4 Introduction to ECOTECT

Issues such as climate change and diminishing resources are increasingly having a
significant impact on the way in which we design and construct our built environment. As
building design professionals, architects can no longer rely solely on intuition or generic
‘rules of thumb’ to design energy efficient buildings. With tools such as Ecotect, architects
are better empowered to make decisions regarding these matters, and can adopt a more
holistic approach towards building design. Ultimately, this will result in more energy efficient
buildings and a green, sustainable approach towards development

Ecotect is a 3D building analysis program that assists architects in analyzing many

aspects of a building’s performance, with a particular emphasis on creating energy efficient,
sustainable designs.It has grown to become a leading application for the analysis of building
performance, offering a diverse suite of tools for assessing aspects of a design such as solar
exposure, thermal performance, acoustics, lighting, shading, and much more.

Use of ECOTECT in the early stages of the design process

Many of the early design decisions we make on a project will have a major impact on
whether or not a building will use energy and materials efficiently. Consequently, the effect of
these decisions needs to be quantitatively assessed during schematic design and design
development. Ecotect is one such tool that assists architects to do this.

Ecotect modeling principles

Figure 1 shows an example of an Ecotect model for a two storey residence. This model was
created in Ecotect itself, but could have been modeled and exported from another
application, such as SketchUp or ArchiCAD—Ecotect supports a wide variety of 3D CAD
formats.

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Figure 1. A typical Ecotect model of a two storey residence

It is reasonably intuitive to view and navigate around an Ecotect model.

 Hold down the right mouse button, and you can rotate the view—the model always
rotates about its centre.
 Hold down the scroll wheel, and you can pan the model, and scrolling forward and
backwards zooms in and out respectively

 The first thing you may notice about the model is that the walls and floors have no
thickness (see Figure 2, which shows a closer view of one of the spaces).

 In Ecotect, the thickness of a wall or floor plane is a property of the material assigned
to it (e.g., cavity brick, timber frame, reinforced concrete, etc.) and so it doesn’t need to
be modeled in 3D.

 However, in the event that the walls and floors were modeled with thickness—such as
if you imported a 3D model created in another application—Ecotect can compensate
for the distance between these surfaces that should otherwise be adjacent.

 This will be explained in more detail in the following paragraph.

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Figure 2. Walls and floors in an Ecotect model are represented as single planes, with the thickness being a property of the material
assigned to that plane.
 The model is broken up into a series of discrete spaces known as “Zones,” as shown
in Figure 3.

 Zones serve a similar function to classes or layers in other CAD programs for
organising elements of the model, in Ecotect, they also define areas for the purpose of
thermal analysis.

 As a general rule, a zone must be created as a fully-enclosed volume—imagine that a

zone is full of water and that it can be picked up and turned upside down. If any water
can leak out, it is not a fully enclosed thermal zone.

 Therefore when you model one zone next to another, you model both of the wall
planes that are adjacent, where each wall plane defines one enclosed volume.

 This overlap is compensated for when Ecotect performs an “Interzonal Adjacency”

calculation.

Figure 3. Each space or volume in an Ecotect model is defined as a zone for the purposes of thermal analysis. Adjacent zones should
still be modeled as fully enclosed volumes by themselves.
 Doors and windows don’t count when determining if a zone is fully enclosed,
because of their relationship to the model.

 They are regarded as childobjects that are inserted into parent objects such as walls,
and so are still considered to form an enclosed volume (see Figure 4).

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 A door or window can be assigned its own material properties (e.g., single-glazed
aluminium frame, hollow core door panel, etc.).

 When you have a door or opening leading between one zone and another, there’s no
need to “double-up” and model a door in each of the adjacent walls.

 Ecotect automatically accounts for the corresponding opening in the adjacent zone

Figure 4. Elements such as doors and windows share a child-parent relationship with elements such as walls. Doors and openings
leading from one zone to another don’t need to be created twice
 Switch to different views of the model, such as orthographic or axonometric
projections, via the View menu.

 To get a clearer view of your model in its entirety, try clicking on the Visualise page
tab to the left of the main window. This shows the model in OpenGL (see Figure 5).

 You can use the Visualisation Settings control panel to adjust display options.

 Click back on the 3D Editor page tab and press F8 to return to the perspective view.

Figure 5. You can use the Visualise page tab to view your model in OpenGL.

Assessing Site Conditions

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We can use this model to consider site conditions and orientation, and evaluate if the
proposed building envelope represents a suitable design response.

 Firstly, let’s tell Ecotect where the project is geographically located, and the
orientation of the site.
 Click on the Project page tab, which displays a summary of project information.
 Specify the location of the project by loading the Weather Data file.
 Figure 6 shows the location for this particular project specified as Perth, Western
Australia (click the Reload button to initialise the file), but there are many other data
files included with Ecotect from all around the world.
 You can also import your own climate data if necessary.
 To the right of this page, you can confirm if the latitude and longitude are correct,
and also set the time zone.
 Below this, you can specify which way is north, and the local terrain.
 This is used when performing thermal and ventilation calculations.

 Return to the 3D Editor page tab (note the north point shown on the modeling grid,
now indicating the building orientation) and then switch to a Plan projection via
the View menu. Then go to the Calculate menu and click onPrevailing Winds (see
Figure 7).

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In the dialog box that appears, accept the default settings and click OK, and you will now
see the Ecotect model overlaid with prevailing wind data for the entire year, as shown in
Figure 8. This allows us to see that most of the winds are low speed and mainly from an
easterly, and south, south-westerly direction. In order to maximise cooling using natural
ventilation, we would want to orientate living spaces and openings to take advantage of
these winds.

if you need further information, such as what times of the day these winds are present, this
can be configured via the Prevailing Winds dialog box (see Figure 9). You can also view
other climate data in relation to your model, such as wind temperature, rainfall and relative
humidity. However, as different weather stations around the world have varying procedures
for recording climate data, the Ecotect climate data file may not contain all of this
information. Nonetheless, most will still contain sufficient data to be of value.

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Figure 9. Ecotect includes a variety of other climatic data as well.

We can also begin examining the solar orientation and shading aspects of the model.

 While there are a number of programs that can display accurate shadows and shading
in a 3D model, there are a few analysis features unique to Ecotect in this regard.

 To reset the model view, press the F9 key, and then F8 to return to a perspective view.

 You may also want to resize the modeling grid to fit the model by clicking the Fit Grid
to Objects button.

 Now go to the Display > Shadowsmenu.

 This displays the shadows that would be cast by the building on the ground plane.

 Ecotect uses different shades of grey to differentiate between shadows and sunlight
penetrating or reflecting into a space.

 As can be seen in Figure 10, the proposed design has the kitchen, dining and living
spaces orientated north, providing good solar penetration into these spaces.

Figure 10. Displaying the shadows on the Ecotect model.

We can also analyze the shadows and shading for particular days.
 Based on the geographic location specified, Ecotect automatically works out key
analysis dates, such as the winter and summer solstice.

 Click the Set Current Time/Location button, and choose Winter Solstice, for
example, as shown in Figure 11.

 The shadows update automatically, and you can adjust the time to the left of this
button.

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 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF BUILDINGS

Figure 11. Ecotect records key analysis dates throughout the year, such as the winter and
summer solstice.

Ecotect can also project a 3D stereographic sun-path diagram onto the model, as shown in
Figure 12, which allows us to see the position of the sun in relation to the model.

 Click on the Shadow Settings control panel to the right of the main window.

 Check the Display Sun Path checkbox.

 In the corresponding diagram overlay, click and drag the sun (or use the Up/Down
buttons to the right of the Time field in the toolbar) to interactively adjust the
shadows.

 Now also check the Annual Sun Path checkbox.

 You can adjust the time position of the sun as before, and hold downShift while you
drag the sun to change the date.

Figure 12. A sun-path diagram projected onto the Ecotect model can be a useful visual
display for planning reports and submissions.

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 Reset the date and time to 12.00 June 21st (Winter Solstice for the southern
hemisphere), and uncheck the Display Sun Path and Annual Sun Pathcheckboxes.

 In the Shadow Settings control panel, click the View from Sun Posbutton, and then
click on the Visualise page tab.

 The view of your model is reorientated as if you are standing on the Sun itself,
looking back towards the Earth (see Figure 13).

 This allows you to visually analyze which surfaces are most exposed to the Sun at
different times of the year, which could be used to determine the optimum locations
for positioning solar panel arrays.

Figure 13. View from Sun position allows you to gauge visually which model surfaces
receive the greatest solar exposure for a particular date and time.

Lastly, overshadowing of adjacent properties is something that often needs to be addressed

in an early schematic design.

Under the Zone Management control panel, turn on the Outside zone.

Three plane objects have been used to represent the site and adjacent properties.

Select the two adjacent site objects, and under the Shadow Settings control panel, click
the Shaded button to designate them as shaded surfaces.

Now Ecotect only displays shadows on these objects, as shown in Figure 14.

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 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF BUILDINGS

Figure 14. After tagging the adjacent sites as shaded, projected shadows will only appear
on these objects.

From a quick visual analysis, we can clearly see there will be no overshadowing issues for
the property to the north, and that less than 50% of the southern property will be shaded at
the specified time and date.

However, if a more quantitative analysis was required, say for planning approval purposes,
this can be generated even at this early stage of conceptual modeling.

Select just the southern property, and go to the Calculate > Sun-Path Diagram menu.

In a new window, you will see a more conventional version of a stereographic sun-path
diagram, and in addition to this, the approximate shadow being cast onto the selected object.

Expand the Shading Mask section to the right of the diagram, and then click on
the Calculate Shading button.

Set the dialog box that appears as shown in Figure 15, and then click OK.

Figure 15. Settings for the overshadowing calculations.

After a brief calculation period, the shading mask for the selected object is displayed on the
sun-path diagram, along with a legend indicating the percentage of overshadowing that
occurs (see Figure 16).

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In the bottom left hand corner, you can see that only around 23% of the adjacent site is
overshadowed by the proposed development.

In the main Ecotect window in the background, the test points are indicated with small green
dots. Increasing the accuracy increases the number of testing points used.

Figure 16. The shading mask generated for the southern site, showing what percentage of
overshadowing occurs on it.

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