A software approach for economic optimisation of energy use in buildings.

When designing a new, or retrofitting an existing building it is desirable to minimise theheatinglcooling load, total energy use and emissions from combustion. Solutions toaccomplish this has to be held up against investment costs, maintenance costs,longevity and of course indoor climate (among other things). Optimisation betweenthese different and often competing criteria is complex, and involves a lot ofparameters. In real life such an optimisation process is often done in a superticial way,or designers often use well-known climatization solutions without evaluatingalternatives.Energy in Buildings 2.0 (EiB) is a very user-friendly Windows application, applyingthe graphical user interface possibilities in Windows 3.1/Windows95. It simulatestemperature, power demand, energy use and emission release from combustion. It isalso possible to do profitability analysis of measurements/alternatives. EiB can be usedin design of new buildings or retrofitting of existing buildings.Simulations in this paper shows that smart energy design in commercial buildings ,often using building dynamics, can reduce the energy consumption dramatically.Measures like : daylight utilisation, use of thermal mass, hybrid ventilation systems anddemand controlled heating, ventilation and cooling, are very effective for reducing theenergy use in commercial buildings. Profitability analysis indicate that many of theseenergy efficiency measures are cost effective.