What is the impact of envelope on heating and cooling loads?

PROJECT INFORMATION

Submitted By:

Sukreet Singh

What tools did you use to create the graphic?

Excel
Sefaira

What kind of graphic is this?

heat map

Primary Inputs:

Glazing Ratios, Wall R-Value, Glazing Properties, Roof R-Value

Graphic Information

What is the graphic showing?

The data is communicated using the gradation of the color. Darker the color more impactul the area on overall loads. Red is for heating load and blue for cooling load.

How did you make the graphic?

The tabular output from Sefaira was interpreted and converted to graphical format. Certain thresholds were set in excel which categorized the color in Very High/ High / Typical load categories depending upon how far the values were from typical rule of thumb for high performing building. The colors were then overlaid on floor plan using photoshop.

What specific investigation questions led to the production of this graphic? List them:

What's the optimum window to wall ratio? Which areas are high impact areas for reducing or optimizing WWR or glazing properties. Would increasing envelope insulation values make a difference?

How does this graphic fit into the larger design investigations and what did you learn from producing the graphic?

The analysis informed the design to understand the troublesome areas and then put thought on exploring different designs that would reduce the overall load on the building. Glazing were moved, removed, replaced or changed orientation as an outcome.

What was successful and/or unique about the graphic in how it communicates information?

Easy way to illustrated the troublesome areas instead of trying to figure out what's going on with the loads report or let the engineer deal with the design decisions.

What would you have done differently with the graphic if you had more time/fee?

Saved all the different iterations and created a final combined graphic that shows the iteration on one side and loading calcs on the other.