Sustainability Summit 2012

Autodesk hosted a Sustainability Summit on February 7, 2012. See Autodesk CEO Carl Bass in conversation with Fortune Magazine's Marc Gunther; Autodesk Sustainability Director Lynelle Cameron; and a panel of sustainable design leaders facilitated by Autodesk sustainable manufacturing lead Sarah Krasley. For more on sustainable design, visit www.autodesk.com/sustainable-design

Cool Revit add-on for a hot summer

After living through the negative effect of the thermal lag in a non-insulated masonry building during my vacation on one of the Adriatic islands, I wished that the architect designing this, in all other aspects beautiful family residence, had the access to this latest add-on for Revit platform.

Great job Autodesk for this technology transfer between Revit and Ecotect Analysis!

Sun Power Calculator

This is a link to a SunPower solar calculator that will tell you:
• How much a SunPower solar system will cost for your house
• What tax credits, rebates and other incentives are available to you
• Potential financing costs and energy savings

Autodesk - Building Performance Modeling Powerhouse

After the recent acquisition of Green Building Studio, the acquisition of Ecotect is anything but a surprise. As the old saying goes, "If you can't beat them, buy them" and ADSK is apparently very good at doing so. What to expect next? Speculations aside, in my opinion another flavor of Revit might emerge, Revit Analytical as the melange of best what GBS and Ecotect can offer, Interface and DOE engine. Only time will show, but today it is quite certain who is 100% committed to BIM and BPA integration.

Ecotect v5.60

As far as I am concerned if this June looks like a February (just referring to the 6 months old post on the Ecotect site), it might very well be one. According to the posting on the Square One site, the v5.60 release candidate is available for download and this highly anticipated release could be the one that was worth waiting for. Like I said, if they said February then this is February indeed. Personally I am looking forward to another productive analytical year with Ecotect by my side.
In next few weeks we will put it to the test and see what improvements it brings to the realm of Building Performance Analysis.

VE-WARE goes live

The Revit integrated VE-Ware is now ready for download . VE-Ware presumably gives instant feedback on a building's energy consumption and CO2 emissions based on real geometry and using international climatic data. Over the next few weeks we will test this application and see how it compares to a range of already existing free applications and services that can be used for the preliminary Building Performance Analysis.

IES VE-WARE

IES launches free building energy and carbon assessment sotware IES VE-WARE at AIA convention in Boston. VE-WARE will be released in June 2008
(Link)

ecoDriver - reducing your CO2 footprint

ecoDriver suite of products have been specifically developed for companies and institutions who are keen to reduce their utility costs but who are primarily concerned with improving their organisation’s sustainability.

• Monitor energy & water usage, business travel, etc
• Alert consumers when consumption exceeds targets
• Prompt action to reduce consumption
• Provide feedback on success of action taken
• Engage employees in sustainability endeavours

Are Highly Efficient Buildings Sustainable?

An intriguing article by Dr. Marsh (Ecotect) in which he juxtaposes the benefits of design versus operational efficiency.
(Read more)

Big Green for Deep Blue

IBM Builds Green Data Center for GIB-Services; Innovative Technology to Heat Local Public Swimming Pool....
(Read more)

Green Buildings in Google Earth

"What are "green buildings"? This KML showcases buildings across the United States that are included in the Department of Energy's High Performance Buildings Database, which features buildings that meet certain energy and environmental performance guidelines. Be sure to click the "View 3D model in Google Earth" link to see a 3D virtual representation of the building."
(Link)

Energy Plus Plug-In for AutoCAD

EnergyPlugged is an Autodesk AutoCAD plug-in to create and edit EnergyPlus input files. EnergyPlugged was conceived to improve and speed up EnergyPlus model creation without loosing control of it, preserving EnergyPlus' flexibility and allowing errors to be found.

Alternative approach to carbon footprint reduction

UCLA chemists report a major advance in reducing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science.
(read more)

Prototype power plant shatters solar record

Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25% net efficiency rate.
(read more)

ECOTECT - Finally

After almost an entire month of waiting for the updated Ecotect web site, it is finally on line again. Updated tutorials and the latest news on that coveted 5.60 release, are just some of the features that are now accessible through the revamped Square One web site.

Autodesk - Green and Carbon Neutral !!!

It was bound to happen. Another strategic purchase by the well known giant from San Rafael. This time, like some five years ago when another acquisition redefined the software of choice for BIM from ADT to Revit, they are reinventing their commitment to sustainability by another, in my opinion even more revolutionary, move.

Starting today, Autodesk has become a major player in the arena of building performance analysis by acquiring Green Building Studio Inc. , and by doing so the “Factory” can finally stake their claim in green building beyond green marketing.

Green Building Studio, Inc. offers the only web-based solution that provides immediate whole building energy and carbon analysis on any building design scheme. Their product, based on interpretation of gbXML encoded building geometry, allows designers to share information at all stages of design.

If the quality of information contained within most “BIM compliant” datasets ever had to undergo scrutiny of its applicability for delivering better buildings, it would be hard pressed to live up to the hype. Now, the virtual representation of the physical world is one step closer to become a major part of one’s digital building, and the grammar and the vocabulary needed is what Green Building Studio brings to the house of AutoDesk.

When the late Louis Kahn metaphorized architecture as frozen music, he could not have envisioned the decades of CAD/BIM induced white noise. This move by Autodesk represents an enormous opportunity for architects to start composing in harmony with the world around us.

(read more...)

Green Building Studio and the Biofuel Use CO2 offset

If your Green Building Studio analysis suggests the potential for Biofuel use as one of the solutions for offsetting CO2 footprint, you should definitely reed this article in R&D magazine....

gbXML Project Location and Revit

Location, location, location! These days, even with the real-estate market in peril, this seller’s mantra should still be relevant for anyone that is serious about their energy modeling practice and Revit’s model translation. When exporting your model to a gbXML compliant file, according to the Revit Architecture manual, all you need is the ZIP code and the building type. Well, not quite so as unfortunately, even though the latitude and longitude data is exported to gbXML, it does not relate to the project’s zip code but to the location that is determined via the advanced model graphics settings. And since the DOE 2.2 manual clearly states that hourly loads are the function of a building’s longitude and latitude one should take that extra step of synchronizing the ZIP code and sun location within Revit before translating Revit’s building geometry. Or, we can just hope that in one of the next installments of Revit BIM platforms the sun data and energy data will be automatically synchronized. You can easily verify the inherit discrepancy that is described above by opening the newly created gbXML file and verifying the “Campus” entries of the ZIP code, longitude and latitude.

Silicon nanowires and their potential....

The Nano Photovoltaics team at GE is projecting an 18% efficiency potential for its scalable PV cell, which incorporate silicon nanowires.
(read more)....

and

The 40-hour laptop? Nanowires give 10-fold boost to battery life.
(read more)...

Transstudio and Transmaterials

Great resource for everyone that is trying to operate within the evermore demanding field of performance based design.
Watch the video, and subscribe to the free material newsletter...