Sustainable design
About EcoDesigner, Energy Evaluation, Life Cycle Assessment, etc.

Whoa! Graphisoft announce EcoDesigner energy evaluation tool

Anonymous
Not applicable
http://www.graphisoft.com/company/press_zone/ecodesigner.html

I see that Graphisoft EcoDesigner for ArchiCAD12 has just been announced!

Sounds excellent!

Will be very interested to see further details when released.
97 REPLIES 97
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ralph wrote:
"All you want is 'rule of thumb' results - how is performance affected if I do this? Or that? Is my design improved or worsened?"
Perfect!
That's nearly exactly how G.S. was presenting it at the A.I.A. convention in S.F. last month.
Very powerful, if used wisely!
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ralph clarified what I was trying to say. Just meant the intended use of each program is similar (early energy comparison). Looks to me like ED will be a step forward in integration.
Anonymous
Not applicable
I am confused between EcoDesigner, Archiphysik and Ecotect.
Does anybody have any suggestion regarding their comparative appropriateness in getting the basic energy consumption info and producing the energy certificates required by building legislation?
thanks in advance
Anonymous
Not applicable
constantine wrote:
I am confused between EcoDesigner, Archiphysik and Ecotect.
Does anybody have any suggestion regarding their comparative appropriateness in getting the basic energy consumption info and producing the energy certificates required by building legislation?
thanks in advance
I have had the following reply from my reseller regards Ecodesigner.

"EcoDesigner is different from Ecotect and IES in that it sits within ArchiCAD and is used at the early stages of a project to help evaluate the merits of different schemes – however as far as I am aware there is no official SAP calc within the system."

Would be great if it provided the requried information for local building athorities, hopefully this will come in subsequent versions!
Anonymous
Not applicable
I think this would be a must especially for the European market. I do not think that here must be a difficulty in doing that just like Archiphysik does, as long as they calculate the data anyway.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Mats wrote:
Hi again!

StruSoft-BESTEST
When the conditions starts to be close to passive buildings with thick insulations, different kind of heat recovery systems, solar panels and technical equipment like heat pumps then it gets impossible to calculate energy consumption with any level of accuracy with static methods. StruSoft-BESTEST is a validation method for this circumstances inspired by HVAC-BESTEST and developed by StruSoft AB to determine a software's ability to handle infiltration, heat recovery from ventilation units, sewer, solar panels, different heat pumps, special condition in the north part of the northern hemisphere and conditions north of the arctic circle where the suns shine 24 hours a day in the summer and it is dark in the winter. StruSoft-BESTEST was developed because other international test methods did not cover infiltration, heat recovery and Nordic conditions adequately.
To qualify for these tests the software have to be dynamic.

Mats Ola
Mats,

We're thrilled to see you talk about ED's validation in these terms. You said all the secret code words: Passive, Heat Recovery, Infiltration!, special conditions in the northern hemisphere.

We've been moving towards PHPP (the passivhaus design package) for energy modeling our houses, but it's as far from a graphical interface as one can get. Rigorously validated for low-energy buildings, sure, but not an easy work-flow.

Your comments here give me great hope. We're in a cold northern climate (Maine US), working with many R-40+ / <1.0 ACH50 type buildings, and verifying our mechanical system choices is quite difficult.

Thanks for weighing in here.
Anonymous
Not applicable
jessetho!

I personally would not lean on PHPP because it is a simplified method. It can not handle smart GreenDesigns like that the Swedish Architect Bengt Warne started with in the late 70's. Swedish Architect Zoltan Kiss has taken up this kind of design making "small additional cost" buildings with extremely low energy consumption (lower than passive house). The principle is building a well insulated heavy structure house inside a greenhouse or a architectural interesting "simple shell". The shell is not heated and they creating a controlled micro climate with natural ventilation and natural cooling. With large windows facing south he has a very comfortable room temperature around 24oC even during heat waves ( he's neighbors that also have large south facing windows on traditional house have +40oC inside). The extra area is usable the whole day from very early spring to very late fall and during sunny winter days, christmas or new years eve party's.

By using natural ventilation and cooling and smart solutions you can build houses in the tropic's with a comfortable room temperature that don't require any energy at all for heating or cooling.

PHPP might work with light weight structures with one climate shell using normal heating or cooling but not with smarter solutions.

In the same way gbXML is not built for and can't handle this kind of buildings. If you look at the gbXML specification today it might work for dimensioning hvac and mep equipment like heaters, radiators, coolers, boilers, ventilations units etc.
We know that the gbXML spec is not working for energy calculation under normal Scandinavian circumstances and with solution that build on natural ventilation and cooling. We also know that the specs seems to work under"normal USA conditions" thin insulations and when you control room temperature with heaters and coolers. But somewhere along the line gbXML stops to work as a information (data) transport solution.


Mats Ola
Anonymous
Not applicable
For those who are interested in Bengt Warne see
http://bengtwarne.malwa.nu/index.html
and
Zoltan Kiss house see
http://www.eco-guide.net/skane/Villa_Zoltan_Kiss_project.php?db_id=

Mats Ola
Anonymous
Not applicable
jessetho!

I compared the climate profile for Portland, the temperature looks equivalent to Stockholm (with a higher daily amplitude) but the solar radiation and solar angle is closer to Venice.

This seems to me that the conditions are better for you to build a house that consumes extremely little energy for heating and cooling using the same principle as Zoltan Kiss and Bengt Warne.
Under that conditions you should be able to build a plus-energy house (a building that produces more energy than it consumes)


Mats Ola
Ralph Wessel
Mentor
Mats wrote:
In the same way gbXML is not built for and can't handle this kind of buildings. If you look at the gbXML specification today it might work for dimensioning hvac and mep equipment like heaters, radiators, coolers, boilers, ventilations units etc.
We know that the gbXML spec is not working for energy calculation under normal Scandinavian circumstances and with solution that build on natural ventilation and cooling. We also know that the specs seems to work under"normal USA conditions" thin insulations and when you control room temperature with heaters and coolers. But somewhere along the line gbXML stops to work as a information (data) transport solution.
I think a discussion about gbXML really belongs somewhere else - it doesn't have much bearing on ED. Having cast doubt on gbXML as a transport mechanism, however, I think it's only fair that you provide some solid facts. gbXML was designed specifically to transport building data for green analysis and design; from gbXML.org:
gbXML.org wrote:
The Green Building XML schema, referred to as “gbXML”, was developed to facilitate the transfer of building information stored in CAD building information models, enabling integrated interoperability between building design models and a wide variety of engineering analysis tools and models available today
The building fabric, context, and usage is described in enormous detail, including individual room volumes, detailed construction data (layers of materials including doors/windows, engineering data/characteristics, adjacencies), room usage (people and equipment), building occupancy patterns, shading, lighting, plant, etc.

So why do you say "gbXML is not built for and can't handle this kind of building" or "somewhere along the line gbXML stops to work as a information (data) transport solution." What data specifically is missing?
Ralph Wessel BArch