This paper presents the outcome of a study based on the early-stage analysis of six virtual urban-scale de-signs located in Bern, Switzerland. A preliminary so-lar potential evaluation methodology is devised, in-spired by previous studies, to allow the comparison of the projects’ potential for exploiting solar energy through passive (e.g. daylight) and active (e.g. pho-tovoltaic) measures. The workflow employed distin-guishes itself by integrating and confronting conflict-ing performance indicators and geometrical param-eters.

This paper presents a study in support of decision mak-ing for building retrofit and energy supply strategy at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in southwest Lon-don, England. The study considers the issues that af-fect simulation at the building scale specific to this site, in particular simulation of heat flow in botanical glasshouses, retrofit of heritage structures and simula-tion of power load for buildings with high equipment density.

Computer simulation and field studies were conducted to investigate the implementation of natural cooling strategies in existing apartment buildings in Athens; the most typical urban domestic building type of Greece. Thermal performance analysis and airflow modelling in a specific apartment were conducted for the summer period using dynamic building energy simulation tools. The indoor thermal comfort was evaluated with reference to the adaptive thermal comfort theory.

With more frequent problems of reflected daylight from building envelopes, it is important to assess the influence of a building envelope design in terms of reflected daylight at early stage. This could reduce the risk of environmental problems and minimize the consequences cost after construction. The objective of this study is development of procedures for the assessment. A tool chain has been implemented on parametric design platform RHINO and GRASSHOPPER.

Dynamic energy simulation has the potential to provide relevant information about building energy behavior. However detailed models require an increased number of input data, which sometimes can undermine the accuracy of the simulation outcomes.  Among the terms of the building energy balance, one of the greatest contributions is provided by the heat transfer through the envelope. This is mainly affected by the uncertainty of the thermo-physical properties such as conductivity, specific heat and specific mass.

This paper presents the energy modeling and simulation of a railway station building through thermal and electrical loads calculations. To address this problem, we have developed architectures of thermal and electrical models using Dymola/Modelica environment. Thermal model is based on the elementary components of Modelica Buildings Library associated with other internal (GDF SUEZ) and external libraries. As for the electrical model, we implemented a new library to predict and calibrate on real data provided by measurements the power consumption of several equipment into a railway station.

New French construction programs must deal from 2013 with strongest regulation requirements intended to reduce building energy consumption : Thermal Regulation 2012. The envelope is one of the building major elements that is concerned by these regulatory demands and where insulation enhancement can give a suitable response. Therefore, increasing the insulation level and air-tightness will positively influence the heating needs during cold season, but the main difficulty resides instead during the warm season.