Building Around Solar Power ☀️

Intended users

Construction Teams (Building Energy Engineers or Building Maintenance Team)

Need you’re trying to provide a solution or support for

This tool can be used by construction teams when they are planning the building design and want to account for sustainability. It will provide them with the best dimensions to have the shortest payback period on their solar panel while have maximizing the energy met through solar power. It will help with decision making regarding solar cost and worth.

Inputs

Building Dimensions

Cuboid Building (Length, Width, and Height)

Organic Building (Base Dimensions, Middle Shape Dimensions, Roof Dimensions, and Height)

EUI (Fixed Value Depending on Building Usage)

Underlying logic of the model you’ll implement

The model will calculate how much energy is consumed based on the dimensions of the building. Total Floor Area (SF) x EUI = Building Energy Usage.
The Solar Insolation of the roof will be calculated and that will be multiplied by a solar efficiency to output how much power the panels are producing.
Solar Power Output/Building Energy Usage (Energy Met Ratio). (Annually)
Additionally, this model will optimize the best dimension to have the shortest payback period for the panels. This will be based on the EMR and how much energy is bought from the grid. The fixed rate of power from the grid and EMR will give us the annually saving.
Payback Period = Cost of Investment / Annual Cash Flow (Annual Saving)
Lastly, we want to maximize the volume of the building.

Outputs