My model currently has overhang features over the south facing curtain walls, which also have Triple glaze, Low-E coatings. My roofs are currently standard, but I plan to reiterate them to model a green roof construction on surfaces where I won’t have PV panels.
I’ve focused most of my shading/glazing effects on the south facing curtain walls since they will experience the most light/most potential for energy efficiency optimization. At a minimum, I created my overhangs to shade the south facing curtain walls fully in the summer solstice while still allowing light during the winter months.
My wall construction is currently CMU with R54, and floor constructions are insulated concrete/lightweight concrete for upper floors.
Figure 1: My model’s shading during Summer Solstice in NYC.
I then modeled my building envelope in Insight. After adjusting my model from initial baseline to match my current BIM settings for:
- operating schedule (BIM)
- south facing windows (Trpl LoE)
- wall construction (CMU, R-54)
which resulted in an EUI of 81.9, which is just below the ASHRAE 90.1 standard.
Figure 2: Baseline Scenario
I started to play with other envelop and energy factors. By adding daylighting /user controls, I was able to get another small improvement in performance. Other ways that I found improvements were from:
- reducing the plug load efficiency to BIM-.6 W/sf (77.8)
- 90% PV coverage (77.4)
- 85% panel efficiency (76.1)
Figure 3: Adjusted Scenario
In future iterations, I want to experiment more with wall/roof construction as well as window placement to see if I can further improve my performance. I would ultimately love to meet the ARCH 2030 standards to be more ambitious and help meet my ultimate net zero goals.
Viewing other tiles that we haven’t explored yet, I also noticed the potential to reduce my EUI by nearly 16 depending on the HVAC system. I am curious to learn more about the feasibility of this system.