Practical Building Performance Simulation

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Please explore the links and do the exercises

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

Exercise 7

Exercise 8

Exercise 9

Exercise 10

 

Aim

To make you familiar with the main features of a specific building performance simulation software environment by gaining hands-on experience, as well as to get practical experience with some quality assurance aspects in the application of simulation software.

Key concepts

  • hands-on experience
  • realistic problems
  • building performance simulation methodology
  • quality assurance

Course structure

This practical training course comprises sets of exercises which are designed and formulated in a software independent manner.

As you progress from the first to the last exercise your goal will be to increase your understanding of these entities and how they relate to the built environment. The exercises are designed to progress you from the category of novice to specialist over a period of time which will depend on your aptitude and stamina.

 Links to software specific information can be found with the installation instructions below.

Before you start

Depending on the class of which this practical training course is a part, you should first install the simulation sofware which is either   VA114,   IES<VE>,    or   ESP-r. 

In a training workshop the instructor would give an introduction to simulation concepts and the context within which simulation is used before you would start with the following exercises and assignments. A typical introduction would include topics such as:
  • the difficulty of assessing the performance of the built environment,
  • the nature of simulation - what it is appropriate for and what it is not,
  • how questions asked by designers are translated into a sequence of simulation tasks and models which represent the essential character of the design  and which delivers useful performance information,
  • what are common metrics of performance,
  • what information is required to support these metrics,
  • review case studies to show:
    •     what the descriptive process is like,
    •     what sorts of information is available in models,
    •     what information assessments can provide.