White roofs - news segment

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A natural ventilation "calculator": The challenge of defining a representative 'performance sketch' in practice and research

Too often in architecture and engineering, the simplicity in early design of the apparent guarantees of HVAC equipment manufacturers wins out over the complexity of estimating the effectiveness of natural ventilation even in Net Zero Buildings. The reality is many people in offices and schools find themselves sitting at a fixed desk, in full direct sun, with the cold draft from the HVAC equipment guaranteeing that on average they are comfortable. The drawing of blinds 'solves' the immediate sun problem, but not the quality of the air. Experience with 200+ students designing low energy, high performance naturally ventilated spaces each year over the past decade has demonstrated that the formulae that exist in the literature for early estimation of window opening size have potential if presented in an appropriate format to facilitate sound design decisions. This paper reports the evolution of that format to a calculation dashboard that facilitates accounting for: outdoor and indoor CO2 levels; wind speeds and frequencies of occurrence; coincidence of periods of calm with high outdoor temperatures; window effectiveness coefficients; single-sided vs cross-ventilation options; building shape and orientation; code minimum ventilation rates; and even infiltration. The paper focuses on the limitations of the approach and its potential complementary role in the future as a Quality Assurance tool for critiquing the output of CFD studies of natural ventilation

Holistic Carbon Accounting: Extending the design life of the existing commercial scale building stock.

This study critically examined the carbon accounting method designers use when considering how to interact with New Zealand's existing commercial buildings as they end their design life. A comparative carbon analysis was carried out using Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of a commercial scale case study. This study aimed to establish the efficacy of refurbishing a commercial building at the end of its design life. The overarching question sought to identify whether a low-carbon new building would be more sustainable than increasing the design life of existing high-carbon commercial-scale buildings </p

Interpreting Traditional Cost Contingency Methods in the Construction Industry

This research investigates how contingency is currently calculated in project budgets within the building industry. This is an important aspect to consider as a large proportion of construction projects are significantly over-budget. The study presents three non-simulation methods and one simulation method for calculating cost contingency following the results of a forthcoming journal paper. These methods are applied against a case study project in attempt to highlight the most reliable method, and to create a methodology that will be useful to the industry. This paper identifies that the traditional fixed percentage approach is not sufficient and suggests that this could be one of the main reasons why construction projects are over budget. While it is unclear which method is the most reliable, this study provides a focus for future research into reliability and utilisation of contingency methods in the building industry. The research demonstrates that current practice needs to change to reduce the large number of construction projects that run over budget

Evaluating computer aided design tools for building performance: Trusting and defining the predetermined automated inputs

BIM use is on the rise in New Zealand with popular software packages, including Revit and ARCHICAD, adopting a semi-automated simulation platform. This allows architects and designers to calculate the thermal and energy performance of their designs. This paper identifies the strengths and weaknesses of these semi-automated simulation platforms. The objective is to investigate how accurate their assumptions are in determining a reliable output for use in achieving compliance with Clause H1 of the New Zealand Building Code. To achieve this, this paper reports a comparative study that examines the program’s ability to calculate construction R-values, interpret thermal properties and simulate energy performance. The results from this study show that if used as delivered there is a significant difference between the simulation results of the two software packages, due to the assumptions built into the default settings. It also identifies the disadvantages of the inbuilt construction R-value calculators and explores a potential path to resolving this through redefining the inputs of thermal properties

A low energy community? A comparative study of Eco-Villages around the world

This paper investigates what is being done to produce sustainable community developments to minimize ecological footprint. Five international case studies were compared with the Govardhan Eco Village in Maharashtra, India. The study describes each case study and then looks at how various sustainable principles have been integrated into the community. Each case study was compared to an appropriate set of sustainability indicators to see which parameters were addressed. In order to establish the fundamental sustainable design focus of each case study, whether technology or human behaviour, the analysis looked at the types of parameters governing each project. Results showed the parameters incorporated in the case studies did not obviously change with time. Further scrutiny of the parameter matrix for all case studies suggested two distinctly different trends in the 'eastern' and 'western' examples. The Indian example appears to show true sustainable development, relying less on technology and more on human capital

User Perceptions of the Public/Private Threshold within Intensive Housing

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Semi-automated simulations: Know your schedules

This study tests semi-automated simulation measures such as schedules and occupancy profiles in B I M software packages to establish energy performance predictions for the purposes of providing evidence of compliance. These predictions are tested against an archetypal range of household operation figures that are based on the data collected of approximately 400 households monitored for 11 months each. This study identifies that standardising the simulations by using the archetypal range of dwelling occupation predictions produces a more consistent outcome in energy evaluation across both software packages. However, both of the B I M software packages tested in this study are unable to establish energy performance predictions that align with the real-world measured data. This suggests that in-built semi-automated simulation measures, beyond the optimised schedules and occupancy profiles, investigated in this study, need to be examined in greater detail

A Natural Ventilation Calculator.

An investigation of active and passive ventilation measures for mitigating poor building performance in early design

Designing for the Elderly in Social Elderly Care Facilities.

An occupant informed analysis that considers design interventions for senior housing facilitie