| authors |
Johnson, Robert E. |
| year |
1984 |
| title |
Computer-Aided Energy Economics for Early Concept Design Analysis |
| source |
Building Economics, International Symposium Proceedings (3rd : Canada). 1984? vol. 3: pp.46-57 : ill. includes bibliography |
| summary |
Decisions that have the greatest impact on energy cost performance are made very early in the design process. The problem is that these early design decisions are rarely tested thoroughly until very late in design. Usually this is due to the difficulties inherent in the use of the more sophisticated analysis procedures. Hourly energy computer simulations are costly to use, often require detailed input preparation, and use large ''main-frame' computers. Easier to use energy evaluation tools such as manual calculations and simplified computer programs do not yield reliable results. This is particularly true when passive solar design solutions are being tested. However, even the sophisticated approaches often have a limited ability to comprehensively model the economic implications of the more accurate energy simulations. This paper is intended to describe efforts at the University of Michigan to develop a more integrated approach to the assessment of energy economics - one that may be used at the earliest stages of concept design. The approach taken has been to concentrate on developing interactive, easy to use computer programs to describe building design proposals. This computer-generated building model is then used to automatically generate the information required to run a large, sophisticated energy analysis program developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (BLAST). Total life cycle cost analysis is performed either using procedures within BLAST or an 'electronic spreadsheet' system. Perceived deficiencies in the current state of this energy/cost evaluation system are described, and future research directions are presented |
| keywords |
architecture, energy, analysis, CAD, economics, design, methods |
| series |
CADline |
| references |
Content-type: text/plain
|
| last changed |
2003/06/02 10:24 |
|
