New Products

DesignBuilder Ver.3 Building energy simulation Price:Architectural：135,450 Yen / Design：191,100 Yen / Advanced：399,000 Yen Release: September5, 2011 Architecture/Plant

Design Festival 2011-3Days November 15, 2011:VRcon.forum8.jp November 16 and 17: Shinagawa front building Day3 "Introduction of FORUM8 BIM&VR solution" 　November 17, 2011 11：30-11：45 Meeting room B, Shinagawa front building

DesignBuilder is a state-of-the-art software tool for checking building energy, carbon, lighting and comport performance developed by DesignBuilder in UK. The linkage with U.S. DOE building energy simulation program "EnergyPlus"(*1) allows the simulation of the environmental condition such as light, temperature, CO2 in the created model, and the design of energy-saving building which considers the environment in the planning process. (*1) EnergyPlus：U.S. DOE building energy simulation program Package configuration and the added/enhanced functions DesignBuilder Ver.3 Architectural Simulation package is prepared to provide as a new product. Architectural Simulation is the minimum package and allows the energy simulation with Energyplus, rendering with Visualization, and the lighting calculation function with Daylighting. "Daylighting" and "HVAC" modules are added to the existing product, and it is provided as Design Simulation and AdvancedSimulation package. Table 1 shows the function of each product. Each package has one-year license and site license, and the users with site license can use the purchased number of sheet within the same network by purchasing the site license sheet (module). EnergyPlus Visualization Daylighting HVAC CFD Architectural Simulation ○ ○ ○ 　 　 Design Simulation ○ ○ ○ ○ Advanced Simulation ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Table 1　Functions of each package

Daylighting module

It is very important to simulate the daylight of the building at the beginning of the design process. DesignBuilder can be used for the lighting design. The saving effect of the lighting electronic power which is led from various lighting planning can be evaluated by studying the daylight simulation and the heating simualtion at the same time. DesignBuilder enables the following three types of calculation. (1) Daylight factor and uniformity The calculation of average daylight factor and the uniformity in each zone. The slice is generated in each block or the whole building to plot the the high-quality illuminance contour (level line). The detailed report on the compatibility to the LEED EQ8.1(US), BREEAMHW1(UK), and Green Star IEQ4 daylight(Australia) can be generated. Daylighting module uses the daylight simulation engine "Radiance" (*2) which is reliable and widely used. A variety type of sky including the cloudy weather of CIE(*3) can be simulated. (*2) Radiance：Radiosity rendering software which allows the simulation of the lighting (*3) CIE:Commission internationalede l'eclairage Figure 1　Contour of illuminance of entire floor Figure 2　Rendering with Radiance (2)Linkage with EnergyPlus simulation The daylight level in the zone depends on many factors including the condition of the sky, position of the sun, position of the lightning sensor, location, size, transparency of the window glass, and the reflection ratio of the window shade and interior. The reduction of the electronic light via Energy Plus simulation and the reduction of the accompanied energy and carbon are calculated. (3)Export to Radiance simulation The export to the advanced Radiance program is required for generating the photo realistic rendering image.

HVAC module

HVAC module is the module for simulating Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. It allows the simulation and analysis of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning in more detail comparing with the existing simulation. In Ver.3, a wide range of HVAC type of EnergyPlus HVAC is supported to provide the strong and flexible new method. The component including ASHRAE 90.1 basis HVAC system is supported to enable the modeling of both air and water. The plant, condenser and air loops through placement of components, mixers and splitters can be graphically defined. It connects nodes using the universal connection tool. The extensible library of E+ components including boilers, chillers, heating coils, heat pumps, cooling coils, pumps, fancs, humidifiers, self-point managers can be used. The templates for component data, e.g. boilers, chillers and performance curves are available. Graphical representation of zones featuring drag and drop facilities for ADUs (air distribution units), radiant heating/cooling devices, fan coil units can be performed. Comprehensive set of ADUs including cooled beams, direct air, dual duct CAV, dual duct VAV, single duct CAV reheat, single duct VAV. with/without reheat, single duct VAV reheat with variable speed fan, series PIU (VAV terminal type), parallel PIU, four pipe induction can be used. Zone forced air units including fan coil units, packaged heat pumps and packaged air conditioner are available. These can be used in zones together with air from AHUs. In addition, automatic network integrity and connection compatibility checks are also available. The HVAC edit screen is integrated with the building modeller.  Figure 3　HVAC system edit   Figure 4　HVAC system edit

Existing functions

DesignBuilder has the additional modules including the energy analysis with EnergyPlus, Visualization function which allows the texture rendering and shade calculation, and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) using the building model. As the simulation can be performed using 3D building model, crossover and comprehensive search can be covered in the architectural design. For details, please see the product information. DesignBuilder product information　http://www.forum8.co.jp/product/shokai/DesignBuilder.htm (Japanese only)

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