Back-End of the Tool:
Documentation for how to use the tool:
The SUNNERGY tool (”Sun” + “Energy” + “Synergy”), designed for Revit - Dynamo, is designed to help optimize the energy-efficiency of residential apartment buildings. It focuses on maximizing solar energy use for heating, lighting and energy generation, through Passive Haus principles including optimizing the window-to-wall ratio, building insulation, and integrating rooftop solar panels. This tool simplifies the trade-off between sustainability and cost by outputting the usable area, capital cost, daily total heating load and solar energy generated for different design alternatives.
Users, including designers, architects, builder owners and consultants, will input various details about the building, including the physical form, details about the windows, solar panels, building envelope, costs per square foot, building location and design day. They will then be able to run a generative design study to explore numerous design solutions based on varying parameters and their objectives, helping optimize the design processes.
Additional Details:
Inputs:
- Building Geometry
- footprint, number of floors, height per floor, total number of units
- Window characteristics
- Window-to-wall ratio, U-Factor, Solar Heat Gain Coefficient , Transmittance , Cost per square foot
- Building Insulation
- R-values of walls, roof, floor and average cost per square foot of envelope insulation
- Solar Panels
- Percentage of roof area that will be solar panels, Panel efficiency, cost per square foot
- Longitude/Latitude of Building Location
- Design Day (day, month, year)
Outputs:
- Daily Cooling or Heating Load in Watt-hours
- this heating load includes the total heat gain or loss through the building envelope, the conduction and solar heat gain through windows, and the internal heat loads from occupants, appliances, and lighting (taking into account daylighting as well)
- Daily Solar Energy Generated in Watt-hours
- Total Capital Cost in $
- Total Floor Area in Square Feet
For more information, please see the detailed explanation of the tool here: https://www.notion.so/bearington/Kiana-Mokrian-c3d47d797e5d4f67a8b5fe17beba8fc1?pvs=4
Using the tool example: Generative Design Study
An example of two results from a generative design study is shown below, where four different variables are all compared in a scatter plot and various inputs are either varied to test different permutations, or kept constant.
Using the tool example: Dynamo Player
Another way to use this tool is through Dynamo Player, where users can change inputs to specific values to analyze the resulting changes to outputs.
Downloading the Tool:
The user can upload the necessary files to a folder, upload that folder to the generative design study or dynamo player and then will be able to use the tool:
Demo of Tool
Below is a recorded video demo (4 minutes - 4units) in which I demonstrate how a user would interact with and benefit from using my parametric design tool: