EVENTS AND WEBINARS

Upcoming Events

About the topic:

With growing concerns over the progressive impacts of climate change, access to appropriate, high quality weather data is an increasingly important consideration for building performance modellers.In this webinar we are joined by Nishesh Jain and Sukumar Natarajan who will be presenting on the topics “Right weather for the right modelling application: What, How and Where?” and “Localising weather and long-term resilience” respectively.

Topics:

Localising weather and long-term resilience – Sukumar Natarajan

This presentation will show how highly localised descriptions of weather have been developed for the UK, at 5 km grid resolution, and India, at 25 km grid resolution.

Right weather for the right modelling application – Nishesh Jain

Depending on the application of the simulation, different types of weather files are needed such as “Typical years”, “Actual years” or “Design years”. While the traditionally used “Typical years” such as TMY, TRY and IWEC are applicable for use in standardised compliance and certification simulations, “Actual years” having full weather data for a specific year are needed for measurement and verification studies where simulation results from a calibrated model are compared to actual utility bills or other measured data. Also, for stress testing and for overheating and/or cooling design applications, “Design years” can be used to represent the more extreme weather likely to be observed in near or far future climate scenarios. In this presentation, we will be using a new online Climate Analytics tool by DesignBuilder which provides access to a vast database of accurately measured weather data for all types of building performance simulation. We will visualise and explore the nuances of all different types of weather files, discuss their use in typical applications, and provide guidance on common mistakes.

Speaker Bio:

Nishesh Jain

Nishesh is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Environment Design and Engineering, University College London. He researches in the field of energy modelling and operational performance of buildings and currently, in collaboration with DesignBuilder Software, is developing new tools for operational performance assessments. He is a qualified architect, and for many years has been involved in performance simulation related consultancy and research.

Sukumar Natarajan

Sukumar Natarajan is Professor of Environmental Design at the University of Bath and Director of the Centre for Regenerative design and Engineering for a Net positive World (RENEW). He was elected Fellow of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (FIBPSA) in 2022 for services to the community. He has been undertaking research on weather files for building simulation for over two decades, in addition to work on related areas such as energy efficiency, carbon, indoor health and thermal comfort.

Webinar: Teaching the fundamentals of building performance simulation

Building performance simulation (BPS) tools employ a large number of mathematical models to simulate a building’s performance under a given set of weather and operating conditions.  Many aspects of performance can be appraised, including energy consumption, ventilation effectiveness, thermal comfort, lighting quality, etc.  The objective is to represent the significant physical processes so that the simulation provides an accurate—or at least a useful—representation of reality.

This technology provides tremendous potential for addressing some of the key challenges facing the building industry in the 21st century by improving design and operation.  However, much of BPS’ potential remains unfulfilled.  There are various reasons for this, but one important factor is a credibility gap that can only be addressed when we adequately prepare users to effectively apply tools with full knowledge of their applicability, modelling limitations, and default methods and data, and provide them the skill set to scrutinize their results.

This talk will argue the necessity for teaching the fundamentals of how BPS tools model physical processes, the impact of modelling choices, and the significance of input data, including hidden defaults, as opposed to training on tool operation.  It will introduce the book Fundamentals of Building Performance Simulation that I have authored in an attempt to address this need and will demonstrate the methods I use to teach this topic at the postgraduate and professional development levels.

Webinar: Can modelling be used to educate architects?

For David, one big question is, given that Passivhaus and other low energy possibilities exist, why do new buildings tend to use just as much energy as old ones? Although many seem able to list possibilities, this is very different to evidence. Particularly when we try to put numbers to the fraction each possibly plays, from poor contracts, lack of ambition to poor engineering. One of the lessons from the Passivhaus movement is that for a low energy design, one needs to start in the right place on day one. This indicates that the architect and the client need to rapidly agree on an evidence-based form, fabric and philosophy that will several years later lead to a near energy neutral building. 

David will suggest that a correctly formatted simple numeric model might be able to play a role in this. He believes that key elements of such a model might be 

1. It needs to focus not just of the building in question, but to leave those involved in a better place for the next building. In short, tools need to be pedagogical, with the tool steering the team to an early stage low energy design and providing a CPD service: In essence, after using the tool, a user should score more highly in an imaginary low energy design exam.
2. If the aim is to influence people, including those in the global south, at the earliest point in their career any tool needs to be used during architectural education and hence probably free. 

During the webinar, David will discuss an attempt to develop such a tool – Zebra. 

A JOINT CIBSE BUILDING SIMULATION GROUP AND IBPSA-ENGLAND EVENT ON ‘ESTIMATING AIRBORNE INFECTION THROUGH SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS’ – PART 1