Design Journal Entry - Module 7

Journal Entry For
Module 7 - Building Envelope Systems

Please enter Your Name to link to your Design Journal, and paste a link to your personal folder on ACC in the ACC Folder Link field above.

For 2 Units

Please share your design showing the features of the proposed building envelope, including the locations and characteristics of:

  • the wall and roof surfaces
  • the openings/glazed surfaces
    • windows and/or curtain walls
    • doors
    • skylights
  • any shading or sun control features

For 3 Units

  • Use your Building Element Model to create an Energy Model.
  • Submit this Energy Model to the Insight analysis tool to explore how the choices and specifications you’ve made in your Building Element Model affect the predicted energy performance.
    • Be sure to set the Operating Schedule factor tile to use the BIM value.
    • Narrow the range of values being considered for the building envelope-related factor tiles to focus on the BIM Model value or better.
  • Explore how other factors (such as Photovoltaic panel options) can further improve your building performance — by using renewable energy to complement your energy saving envelope features.
  • Share the results of your Insight optimization:
    • Include an image of the EUI meter and range indicator after you’ve made your adjustments to show what your current assumptions predict and how much potential there is for additional improvements.
    • List the key Factor Tile settings that are driving these results.

For 4 Units

  • Use one of the Daylight Analysis methods demonstrated to assess the daylighting levels available with your proposed building envelope design:
  • Choose one of these methods:
    • Option 1: Use the Revit Lighting Analysis extension to produce an Illuminance Map of one of the levels of your proposed design.
      • Be sure to watch the videos for tips about what you’ll needed to include in your building model for the lighting analysis to produce valid results. For example, you’ll need to place Rooms and Floors.
      • Paste an image of the resulting Illuminance Map.
    • Option 2: Use the Revit Cloud Render tool to produce Illuminance Renderings of three key areas in your building model.
      • Place cameras in your model to create 3D camera views to be rendered.
      • Use the View > Cloud Render tool to generate Illuminance Renderings for these camera views.
      • Paste images of the Illuminance Renderings into your Design Journal posting.

The openings/glazed surfaces:

Figure 1: View from Southeast Direction
Figure 1: View from Southeast Direction
Figure 2: View from Northwest Direction
Figure 2: View from Northwest Direction

The building envelope is shown in Figures 1 and 2. The walls of the south side and east side are designed as curtain walls because the south side has the largest solar potential found before and the east side could bring a great lake view. The glass panels in this building were designed to use 1-inch thick triple-glazing panels with e = 0.05 to improve thermal performance. Generic walls and roofs were applied first in the model and then sent to Insight to determine the most efficient R-vale for the building.

The wall and roof surfaces:

Figure 3: Wall Construction analysis from Insight
Figure 3: Wall Construction analysis from Insight
Figure 4: Roof Construction analysis from Insight
Figure 4: Roof Construction analysis from Insight

By using Insight, it was found that wall construction with R13+R10 metal can reduce the EUI of 2.97 kBtu/ft2/yr, and roof construction with R15 can reduce 0.49 kBtu / ft2 /yr.

Figure 5: Insight Analysis Information Found Online
Figure 5: Insight Analysis Information Found Online

I found some detailed information about the wall and roof construction analysis in Insight. The R values of the walls and roof are designed with similar R-values and heat capacity as shown in Figure 5. The details of the walls and roof are shown in Figures 6 and 7, respectively.

Figure 6: Detail thermal properties of the Wall
Figure 6: Detail thermal properties of the Wall
Figure 7: Detail thermal properties of the Roof
Figure 7: Detail thermal properties of the Roof

Shading or sun control features:

Overhang for curtain walls was designed to reduce the sunlight for summer and allow sunlight to shed in for winter. The detailed analysis were shown in Figures 8 and 9.

Figure 8: Summer Shading Control
Figure 8: Summer Shading Control
Figure 9: Winter Shading Control
Figure 9: Winter Shading Control

Insight Analysis:

Operating Schedule: BIM

HVAC: High-Efficiency Heat Pump

Roof Construction: R15

Wall Construction: R13+R10 Metal

Window Glass - North, West, East, South: Triple LoE

PV - Payback limit: 20yr

PV - Surface Coverage: 90%

The default insight analysis shows the building has a EUI of 87.18 kBtu/ ft2 /yr. By changing the above parameters, the EUI was reduced to 10.3 kBtu/ ft2 /yr. It is below the Architecture 2030 goal and has the potential to reach -14.9 kBtu/ ft2 /yr by setting every parameter to the most efficient values.

Figure 10: The EUI meter
Figure 10: The EUI meter
image
image
image
Figure 11: Range Indicator
Figure 11: Range Indicator
Figure 12: Optimized EUI
Figure 12: Optimized EUI

Revit Lighting Analysis:

From the lighting analysis for level 2 of the building, the hallway and interior rooms typically have low illuminance but interior areas with skylights have a much better lighting performance. Thus, I chose to add skylights to the red areas and the results are shown in Figure 14.

Figure 13: Revit Lighting Analysis for Level 2
Figure 13: Revit Lighting Analysis for Level 2
Figure 14: Updated Lighting Analysis for Level 2
Figure 14: Updated Lighting Analysis for Level 2