Using Building Information & Energy Modelling for Energy Efficient Designs

Abstract

The construction industry has a huge impact on the environment in terms of noise, water and land pollution, traffic congestion and waste disposal. Another aspect of the construction industry impact on the environment is the increasing energy consumption. According to published research, buildings energy use is expected to increase by 32% by the year 2040. As a result, efforts have been directed toward improving green building awareness and the application of sustainability concepts in the design, construction and building management processes. In this research, using extensive simulations, the integration between Building Information Modeling methodology (BIM) and Building Energy Modeling (BEM) methodologies in order to effectively minimize the overall energy consumption of a residential building in the UAE is investigated by studying several design factors including: building orientation and windows type, size and distribution on the overall building energy consumption. Results show that to increase the modelled building’s energy and financial efficiency, recommended changes to the initial design have to be done including changing the distribution of the southern façade and the type of windows glazing used. More specifically, there was a peak energy reduction of: 8% with a 180 degrees building orientation angle, 2% with a window to wall ratio of 15%, and 2% when double glazing windows were used. This work validates that the combination of BIM and BEM allows to enhance the overall building energy consumption efficiency and to further establish the needed sustainability goals through a generated 3D model.

Selecting a Suitable Flat in a High-Rise Apartment by Evaluation of Heat, Light, and Ventilation

“…A London study used a Revit model and the Green Building Studio, finding that a south-facing orientation at 180 degrees is the most efficient [3]. In the UAE, BIM and building energy modeling assessed orientation, window size, and type, resulting in up to a 1.27% energy bill reduction with optimal adjustments [4,5]. Thermal Imagery-Based BIM models, using thermal cameras, accurately assess heating and cooling.…”

Sustainable Consumption Patterns Adopting BIM-Enabled Energy Optimization - A Case Study of Developing Urban Centre

“…According to Asl, Bergin [20], the energy modeling tools currently used for simulating buildings lack their support to establish parametric relations with the building objects. Besides many other various parameters for energy consumption for buildings, the orientation is an important parameter to achieve energy efficient design [21,22]. Xu, Mumford [23] reviewed a substantial impact of building orientation on its energy performance.…”

“…Its ability to assess energy performance for different alternates offer promising energy saving prospects. BIM can equip construction industry professional with proactive strategies to ensure minimum energy consumption levels during life cycle [21].…”

“…It was recommended that bigger scaled building should be analyzed to achieve considerable results. Watfa, Hawash [21] explored a case study of a single storey family house in UAE to investigate the impact of design factors like orientation, window glazing and size of the building on the energy consumption. The BIM and BEM models were simulated with different parametric combinations to observe minimizing the overall energy consumption trend.…”

Using Regression Model to Develop Green Building Energy Simulation by BIM Tools

“…Watfa, Hawash [31] used the gbXML file as the data transfer medium between the BIM tool (Autodesk Revit) and BEM software (AECOsim Energy Simulator) for evaluating the energy performance of a residential house, and they validated that the combination of BIM and BEM can improve building energy consumption efficiency for case building. Yang and Pan [32] developed a workflow to promote the efficiency and accuracy of the gbXML format for geometry documentation transfer between BIM and BEM. They used center lines BIM enclosing elements to recreate the floor plan and serialize the geometry to gbXML via geometric calculations using float precision algorithms in a 2D plane.…”