Building Performance Analysis

Building performance analysis through Building Information Modelling — design optimisation and visualisation; the weather data files every simulation needs — the EPW (EnergyPlus Weather) file, the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) it is built from, and India Meteorological Department (IMD) data; and the simulation pipeline from a model and a weather file to a result.

Daylight analysis and its metrics (the Daylight Factor, spatial Daylight Autonomy and Annual Sunlight Exposure, Useful Daylight Illuminance); solar irradiation and shading studies driven by the sun path; and wind and natural-ventilation analysis with Computational Fluid Dynamics — the three environmental analyses an architect runs most.

Modelling a building's energy balance — the gains and losses, the loads, the schedules and the systems — to predict its annual energy use and the Energy Performance Index; the difference between an early-stage estimate and a detailed model; and reading energy results to find where the energy goes and what to fix.

Building a performance model — the abstraction of geometry, materials and constructions, schedules and internal loads into a model the engine can solve; the level of detail to use; and the crucial distinction between a modelling INTERFACE (like Ladybug) and the simulation ENGINE (like EnergyPlus or Radiance) that actually does the physics.

The family of simulation tools — Climate Consultant, OpenStudio, EnergyPlus, Radiance/DAYSIM, Ladybug Tools, Sefaira, IES-VE and CFD — and what each is for; and the discipline that makes a simulation trustworthy: validation, calibration against measured data, and an honest reckoning with the performance gap between the model and the real building.