Shown below is my current building after making some adjustments to the floor plans and adding the building envelope features.
Building Energy Use
An energy model was created for my building to look at what features of the building envelope are most important.
From the results, I saw that it could be beneficial to reduce the window to wall ratio on the eastern and western walls. Also, good window glazing materials should be chosen for those walls. As for the roof and walls, as long as they are insulated, the specific type did not make a huge difference. Improving the plug load and lighting efficiencies would make the most difference in my building it looked like. Just by adjusting the operating schedule and improving plug load and lighting, and adding daylight and occupancy controls, the site EUI decreases
Additionally, if solar panels are added on 60% of the roof with a payback period of 20 years, the EUI will reduce even more.
Building F
- Curtain wall on the northern facing wall
- All windows are 1/4 in thick, double glazed, and have a low e-coating
- The floors are all exposed concrete to add thermal mass to the building
- The walls are the “Brick on Mtl Stud” exterior wall type in revit with a thermal resistance (R) around 54 Btu/hr-sf-F
- The roof is a steel truss with insulation on metal deck
- There is a deck on the first floor that will have outdoor seating for the cafe
- There is a terrace on the third floor
- The roof will have solar panels or green roof or both (?), and building occupants will potentially have access
Lighting Analysis
A lighting analysis was done on my building.
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
There are some rooms with not enough lighting. Some of those are the mechanical rooms and storage rooms, so artificial lighting can be used in there when needed. Some of the private offices on level 3 are not getting enough daylight though. Maybe bigger windows should be added into these rooms, or artificial lighting will have to be used. There is a lot of sunlight in the lobby. I’m not sure if this is too much, so maybe other shading features should be added, or the west side of the lobby should not have a curtain wall.
