In the design process, life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) supports the architect with predictions on the building’s operational and embodied energy performance. The earlier these predictions can be retrieved, the more they can influence outstanding design decisions. To encourage the early application, building information modeling (BIM) may increase the accuracy of results and eliminate time-consuming manual procedures. Therefore, robust and fast data exchange between BIM-authoring tools and the software performing the energy analysis has to be established. Problems commonly occur at the geometric conversion of the BIM-model to a building energy model (BEM). For most residential and some non-residential buildings, the building envelope can be divided into zones according to empirical data in the post-processing. Then, the error-prone placement and conversion of space elements can be avoided. Through direct access to building element information, a flexible treatment of BIM-models with commonly encountered quality is possible. Applying this simplification, a workflow leveraging the frequent and didactic usage of LCEA throughout the design process is developed. Enabling real-time feedback, the workflow is prototypically implemented using the Revit API and the LCEA approach of Hollberg (2016) in CAALA (2020). For a user to understand and review the procedure, a visualization of the BEM in the gbXML format can be shown. Finally, the algorithmics of the prototype is validated and its practical functionality is confirmed by an architect.     «

In the design process, life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) supports the architect with predictions on the building’s operational and embodied energy performance. The earlier these predictions can be retrieved, the more they can influence outstanding design decisions. To encourage the early application, building information modeling (BIM) may increase the accuracy of results and eliminate time-consuming manual procedures. Therefore, robust and fast data exchange between BIM-authoring tools and the...     »