Understanding climate, both now and over the lifetime of a building is increasingly becoming an essential for delivering successful sustainable buildings.
Climate is often overlooked as the first ‘feasibility test’ or set of metrics for sustainable design - techniques such as thermal mass / night time purging, and other passive/active/hybrid strategies depend on a proper understanding of climate. Understanding the climate data for a location and being able to draw relevant characteristics to the surface for evaluation is essential in order to assess how climate impacts energy consumption and when certain strategies measures can have an impact.
Looking at climate at both the local level and within a global context can create an understanding of what strategies are candidates for further investigation and what aspects should headline the design. It is vitally important at both masterplanning and concept stages.
Within the IES VE-Toolkits and VE-Gaia new automated tools analyze the climate data for a location, bringing relevant characteristics to the surface for evaluation and to inform design strategy. ASHRAE / Koeppen-Geiger climate classification, temperature, moisture/humidity, wind, precipitation, solar energy, diurnal swing and Mahoney comfort stress analysis is covered.
The new IES Climate Energy Index recognizes that climates are not equal and allows designers to understand first the characteristics of climates and how a climate impacts building design. It is a simple measure of the potential required to maintain comfort, defined by heating, cooling, humidification and dehumidification energy.
