The goals of this research include developing and identifying software technologies, which facilitate the use of buildings described in Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools in both a simulation and visualization. The study focused on the development of a tool to fulfill the visualization needs of a Visual Energy Use System. To accomplish this, the study identified an open BIM file standard, the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The study also identified a video game based 3D virtual environment, the Doom 3 Engine. A tool developed during the study, IFCtoMAP, converts IFC data into the .MAP file format understood by the Doom 3 Engine. Finally, the study identified the IFCtoIDF utility, which translates IFC data into a format understood by the building energy simulation program EnergyPlus. Data from the Building Information Modeling tool Revit Building exports to the .IFC file format, which in turn drives the two conversion utilities IFCtoMAP and IFCtoIDF. The output of the IFCtoIDF tool consists of an .IDF file that EnergyPlus uses to perform an energy simulation. The output of the IFCtoMAP tool consists of a .MAP file, which the Doom 3 game engine uses to display three dimensional first person perspective visualization. The result of the study was the successful creation of an automated tool that converts building geometry found in .IFC files into the .MAP file format understood by Doom 3 game engine. This document details the methods employed by the IFCtoMAP software along with a brief discussion of the IFCtoIDF conversion utility.

The goals of this research include developing and identifying software technologies, which facilitate the use of buildings described in Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools in both a simulation and visualization. The study focused on the development of a tool to fulfill the visualization needs of a Visual Energy Use System. To accomplish this, the study identified an open BIM file standard, the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The study also identified a video game based 3D virtual environment, the Doom 3 Engine. A tool developed during the study, IFCtoMAP, converts IFC data into the .MAP file format understood by the Doom 3 Engine. Finally, the study identified the IFCtoIDF utility, which translates IFC data into a format understood by the building energy simulation program EnergyPlus. Data from the Building Information Modeling tool Revit Building exports to the .IFC file format, which in turn drives the two conversion utilities IFCtoMAP and IFCtoIDF. The output of the IFCtoIDF tool consists of an .IDF file that EnergyPlus uses to perform an energy simulation. The output of the IFCtoMAP tool consists of a .MAP file, which the Doom 3 game engine uses to display three dimensional first person perspective visualization. The result of the study was the successful creation of an automated tool that converts building geometry found in .IFC files into the .MAP file format understood by Doom 3 game engine. This document details the methods employed by the IFCtoMAP software along with a brief discussion of the IFCtoIDF conversion utility.

Building sector takes a large part of Swedish domestic energy use. Swedish government had set goal that required energy consumption should decrease by 20% in year 2020 compared to 1995. Public house companies will play an important role in the process.  The work studies a typical Swedish Multi-family dwelling, built in 1960s and belonging to Älvkarlebyhus AB. These buildings were given enhanced air tightness in recent years which yielded a good result. This work focuses on improving the old ventilation system and decreasing energy consumption.  Building energy simulation tool IDA ICE was used to model the object building and to examine the effectiveness of the new system. The tested energy efficiency measures include upgraded ventilation system with heat exchanger, and the installation of demand control (DCV) to the ventilation. Both energy, environmental and economic aspects are considered in the study. The result showed the total energy demand decreased 35% with renovation. Total investment for all buildings correspond to 5 760 000 SEK. New system could save 237 872 SEK/year and payback time will be 24 years.

Energy demand in the built environment is quite important. China holds a large population and the energy use in the building sector is about 1/3. The rebuilding of old houses and building new low energy houses are becoming more and more popular in China. Low energy building not only consumes less energy, but also provides good indoor environment. An indoor climate software IDA is used in energy and indoor climate simulation. The traditional high isolated low energy house in a hot climate is analyzed, on a typical day in either summer or winter, or during the whole year. Energy consumptions under different parameters are presented. Results show that high isolated house may not always be suitable in a hot climate.

Current designs of high performance buildings utilize hourly building energy simulations of complex, interacting systems. Such simulations need to quantify the benefits of numerous features including: thermal mass, HVAC systems and, in some cases, special features such as active and passive solar systems, photovoltaic systems, and lighting and daylighting systems. Unfortunately, many high performance buildings today do not perform the way they were simulated. One potential reason for this discrepancy is that designers using the simulation programs do not understand the analysis methods that the programs are based on and therefore they may have unreasonable expectations about the system performance or use. The purpose of this study is to trace the origins of a variety of simulation programs and the analysis methods used in the programs to analyze high performance buildings in the United States. Such an analysis is important to better understand the capabilities of the simulation programs so they can be used more accurately to simulate the performance of an intended design. The goal of this study is to help explain the origins of the analysis methods used in whole-building energy simulation, solar system analysis simulation or design, and lighting and daylighting analysis simulation programs. A comprehensive history diagram or genealogy chart, which resolves discrepancies between the diagrams of previous studies, has been provided to support the explanations for the above mentioned simulation programs.

The built environment is responsible for a large portion of total energy use and emissions. A large portion comes from the buildings themselves, but also the transportation system to move people around. As global populations grow, and more people migrate to cities, it is critically important that new city growth is done in the most sustainable manner possible. The typical North American pattern of urban growth is urban sprawl, characterized by single use type zoning, low density, transportation system dominated by personal vehicles, and poor public transit. Urban sprawl has numerous downsides, including poorer energy efficiency in buildings and infrastructure, more congestion and higher emission from vehicles, as well as many negative health effects. This thesis presents the concept of a Mothership, a large, high-density mixed-use building designed to combat urban sprawl and minimize energy use and emissions of the built environment. A mothership is designed to provide all the amenities and housing of a typical suburb for 10,000 people. The analysis in this thesis employ building simulation tools to model various mothership designs and analyse the operational and embodied energy and carbon emissions for each design, and compare it to base cases of more traditional building use types such as single detached homes, and different types of apartment buildings. The effect of high-performance building envelopes and other building materials on operational and embodied energy and emissions are analysed. A multi objective optimization analysis is performed to determine which technologies and combinations of technologies provide the lowest cost solution to meet the mothership’s energy demands while also minimizing emissions. The mothership’s effect on transportation emissions is also investigated. The building’s mixed-use nature allows trips to be satisfied within walking distance in the building. The high concentration of people makes for a good anchor load for public transportation, so the emissions reductions of implementing a bus rapid transit system from the mothership to the central business district is estimated. To reduce transportation emissions further, the effect of an electric car share fleet for mothership residents use is also quantified. The energy system of a mothership is optimized, along with base cases of single detached homes, under numerous scenarios. These scenarios are designed to explore how the energy system changes in an attempt to answer a series of research questions. Some of the measures explored are a high carbon tax, net metering, and emissions limits of net zero, and negative emissions with two different electrical grid carbon intensities. Results showed that a highly insulated, timber framed mothership can achieve very high reductions in energy use and emissions. Overall it showed reductions of 71%, 73%, and 74% in operational energy, embodied energy and embodied carbon respectively, over a baseline case of single detached homes. It was estimated that transportation emissions could be reduced by 58% through the mixed-use development reducing the number of trips and electrically powered transportation vehicles and bus rapid transit. This gives a combined total emissions reduction of 61%. Energy system optimization showed that the mothership design in achieved far lower costs and emissions (4 and 8.7 times lower respectively) than the base case of single detached homes. Of the mothership cases examined, the most expensive case was the one which had a carbon tax, with an annualized cost of $4.3 million. The case with the lowest annualized cost was one with, among other factors, a net zero carbon emissions restriction (annualized cost of $3.08 million. Many of the cases had negative operating costs due to the sale of renewable energy or carbon credits. This illustrates that the integration of renewable energy technologies is not only beneficial for reducing emissions but can also act as an income pathway for energy systems. / Graduate

A methodology to develop an easy-to-use toolkit for the preliminary design of high performance schools in hot and humid climates was presented. The toolkit proposed in this research will allow decision makers without simulation knowledge easily to evaluate accurately energy efficient measures for K-5 schools, which would contribute to the accelerated dissemination of energy efficient design. For the development of the toolkit, first, a survey was performed to identify high performance measures available today being implemented in new K-5 school buildings. Then an existing case-study school building in a hot and humid climate was selected and analyzed to understand the energy use pattern in a school building and to be used in developing a calibrated simulation. Based on the information from the previous step, an as-built and calibrated simulation was then developed. To accomplish this, five calibration steps were performed to match the simulation results with the measured energy use. The five steps include: 1) Using an actual 2006 weather file with measured solar radiation, 2) Modifying lighting & equipment schedule using ASHRAE's RP-1093 methods, 3) Using actual equipment performance curves (i.e., scroll chiller), 4) Using the Winkelmann's method for the underground floor heat transfer, and 5) Modifying the HVAC and room setpoint temperature based on the measured field data. Next, the calibrated simulation of the case-study K-5 school was compared to an ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1999 code-compliant school. In the next step, the energy savings potentials from the application of several high performance measures to an equivalent ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1999 codecompliant school. The high performance measures applied included the recommendations from the ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDG) for K- 12 and other high performance measures from the literature review as well as a daylighting strategy and solar PV and thermal systems. The results show that the net energy consumption of the final high performance school with the solar thermal and a solar PV system would be 1,162.1 MMBtu, which corresponds to the 14.9 kBtu/sqft-yr of EUI. The calculated final energy and cost savings over the code compliant school are 68.2% and 69.9%, respectively. As a final step of the research, specifications for a simplified easy-to-use toolkit were then developed, and a prototype screenshot of the toolkit was developed. The toolkit is expected to be used by non-technical decision-maker to select and evaluate high performance measures for a new school building in terms of energy and cost savings in a quick and easy way.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simple tool that can help designers and researchers obtain general guidelines for buildings in terms of energy usage and LCC. Another objective of this thesis is to apply this tool to residential buildings in order to understand which variables are relevant in terms of energy consumption and LCC costs. A one-story rectangular house was parameterized in terms of five variables: total glazing area; south window-to-wall ratio (WWR); east and west WWR (which are symmetrical for these two facades); insulation width; and window type (ranging from a single clear window to a double low e-clear argon filled window). A high average glazing area (30-40% of floor area) was applied in order to increase energy loads and to augment the importance of the window properties. Simulation was performed through Energy-plus (in conjunction with a code developed especially for this project) for three cities: Austin, Boston, and Seattle. A total of 1055 simulations were run for each city. The experiment showed that only the total glazing area, the E-W WWR and the window types were relevant variables. The former variable is highly correlated with total energy consumption across all cities. Another important conclusion was that each variable's effect on energy consumption worked independently of each other, as there were no considerable differences when analyzing variables individually, as opposed to analyzing them holistically. Results showed that, for Austin and Boston, it was possible to reduce energy loads by 35% and 27% respectively with a double low-e green window (as compared to a single clear window). Similarly, Seattle showed a reduction of 29% for a double low e-clear argon filled window. Nevertheless, the simplest type of window (type 1) presented the best results in terms of LCC. Therefore, we can conclude that only under a high-energy demand situation, such as with office buildings, would it be possible to obtain positive LCC results for double glazed windows. Consequently, double glazed windows will not present positive economical results in typical residential buildings. A second simulation was performed under a tighter HVAC schedule and higher internal loads. In this new scenario, the best windows were the same as with the first simulation, but maximum energy savings were higher: 50%, 34% and 35% for Austin, Boston, and Seattle, respectively. Nevertheless, when considering LCC, a double-clear window presented the best results for Austin, Boston, and Seattle, with 17%, 11%, and 5% reductions in costs respectively compared to the type 1 window. Therefore, if designers are only concerned with costs, the problem of what window to choose becomes non-trivial only for high-energy demand cases. / text

Dagens samhälle står idag inför en stor utmaning, nämligen att minska dess påverkan påmiljön. EU har satt upp riktlinjer mot en mer hållbar utveckling, vilket Sverige beslutat attfölja, där ett mål varit att energianvändningen 2020 ska ha minskat med 20 % jämfört med år2008. År 2021 införs krav på att alla nybyggnationer minst ska uppfylla näranollenergihuskrav.Detta medför ett större ansvar på projektörer att skapa underlag förenergieffektivare byggnader.Den tidiga designprocessen av byggnader kännetecknas av en initiativrik process där mångabeslut fattas på kort tid. De tidiga besluten som berör byggnadsutformningen har enbetydande roll för hur stora energibehov den färdiga produkten kommer att få. Energibehovetpåverkar både byggnadens livscykelkostnad och dess miljöpåverkan. Den här studien ärinriktad på energisimuleringar tidigt i projekteringsprocessen vars syfte är att skapadesigndrivande underlag till beslut rörande byggnadsutformning.Autodesk Revit har ett integrerat verktyg, Energy Analysis, som gör energisimuleringar avBIM-modellen i programmet. Verktyget är framtaget för att göra snabba energisimuleringarsom ska fungera som beslutsunderlag vid projektering mot hållbara byggnadsdesigner. Måletmed studien var att kartlägga beräkningarnas tillförlitlighet och resultatens användbarhet försvenska arkitekter. Utifrån en CAD-fil på ett hus från Klara arkitektbyrå gjordes simuleringari Energy Analysis som jämfördes med samma hus skapat Strusofts VIP-Energy.Resultaten visar att programmen redovisar olika utdata där vissa ej är jämförbara. Jämförelserav transmissionen i de båda programmen visar dock att beräkningsmotorn i Energy Analysisger rimliga resultat. Programmen räknar förhållandevis lika på solinstrålning genom fönster,dock finns det en svaghet hos Energy Analysis när de räknar på fönster med solskydd.Av resultaten dras en slutsats att Energy Analysis gör tillräckligt noggranna beräkningar föratt kunna användas tidigt i projekteringen. Verktyget behöver dock utvecklas och anpassa enversion för svenska förhållanden och normer för att det ska bli användbart i Sverige, vilketredovisas i ett förslag till produktutveckling i rapporten. / Today's society is facing a major challenge, namely to reduce its impact on the environment.The EU has set guidelines towards a more sustainable development, something in whichSweden has decided to comply; where the goal has been to minimize energy consumptionwith 20 % until 2020 compared to the consumption in 2008. In 2021, a requirement will beintroduced. It says that all new buildings in the EA must be “Nearly zero energy buildings” atleast. This implies a greater responsibility on the drafters to create the basis for energyefficient buildings.The early design process of buildings is characterized by a proactive process where manydecisions are made during a short amount time. Early decisions taken regarding the design ofa building affects its total need of energy when the house is put into use. Energy demandsaffects both the building life cycle cost and environmental impact. This study focuses onenergy simulations early in the design process that aims to create design driven basis fordecisions regarding building design.Autodesk Revit has an integrated tool, Energy Analysis, which allows energy simulations ofthe BIM model in the program. The tool is designed to make quick energy simulations thatcan provide a basis for planning the sustainable building designs. The goal of the study was toidentify the reliability of the calculations and usefulness of the results for Swedish architects.Based on a CAD file of a house from Klara arkitketbyrå(architectural firm) simulations weremade in Energy Analysis and then compared to simulations in StruSoft´s VIP Energy.The results show that the programs present different outputs in which some are notcomparable. Comparisons of conductivity in both of the programs show that the calculationengine in the Energy Analysis provides reasonable results. The programs estimate the solarradiation through the windows relatively similar; however, there is a weakness in the EnergyAnalysis as to how it calculates when the window is shaded by sunshields.By the results a conclusion has been drawn that the Energy Analysis allows sufficientlyaccurate calculations to be used early in the design process. The tool needs to be developedand customize a version for Swedish conditions and standards for it to be useful in Sweden, asreported in a suggestion for product development in the report.

Currently, four areas of Texas have been designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as non-attainment areas because they exceeded the national one-hour ground-level ozone standard of 0.12 parts-per-million (ppm). Ozone is formed in the atmosphere by the reaction of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) in the presence of heat and sunlight. In May 2002, The Texas State Legislature passed Senate Bill 5, the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP), to reduce the emissions of NOx by several sources. As part of the 2001 building energy performance standards program which is one of the programs in the TERP, the Texas Legislature established the 2000 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) as the state energy code. Since September 1, 2001, the 2000 IECC has been required for newly constructed single and multifamily houses in Texas. Therefore, this study develops and applies portions of a methodology to calculate the energy savings and NOx emissions reductions from the adoption of the 2000 IECC to new single family houses in non-attainment and affected counties in Texas. To accomplish the objectives of the research, six major tasks were developed: 1) baseline data collection, 2) development of the 2000 IECC standard building simulation, 3) projection of the number of building permits in 2002, 4) comparison of energy simulations, 5) validation and, 6) NOx emissions reduction calculations. To begin, the 1999 standard residential building characteristics which are the baseline construction data were collected, and the 2000 IECC standard building characteristics were reviewed. Next, the annual and peak-day energy savings were calculated using the DOE-2 building energy simulation program. The building characteristics and the energy savings were then crosschecked using the data from previous studies, a site visit survey, and utility billing analysis. In this thesis, several case study houses are used to demonstrate the validation procedure. Finally, the calculated electricity savings (MWh/yr) were then converted into the NOx emissions reductions (tons/yr) using the EPA's eGRID database. The results of the peak-day electricity savings and NOx emissions reductions using this procedure are approximately twice the average day electricity savings and NOx emissions reductions.