Archivo categoría Built Environment
RCx projected to have an 83% Annual Growth Rate the next 4 years: What?! Commercial Building Retro Commissioning (RCx)
Por Jim Foster - Built Environment, Smart Building, Sustainable Retrofits - September 19, 2011
So according to Pike Research, yes “Commercial Building Retro-Commissioning Revenue Could Surpass $1.8 Billion in the United States by 2014″ So that’s a mouthful. Retro-Commisoning, also dubbed RCx, why? I don’t know, looks cool, but RCx simply ” is a process that seeks to improve how building equipment and systems function together. ” Why not say that, well, see cool comment earlier. But according to Evan Mills. 2009. “Building Commissioning: A Golden Opportunity for Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse-gas Emissions” and thier report which “provides the world’s largest database of commissioning case studies for new and existing buildings.”
The results demonstrate that commissioning is arguably the single-most cost-effective strategy for reducing energy, costs, and greenhouse-gas emissions in buildings today.
Who stands to benefit from retro-commissioning? according to EnergyStar, “Building owners, managers, staff, and tenants all stand to gain from the retrocommissioning process. It can lower building operating costs by reducing demand, energy consumption, and time spent by management or staff responding to complaints. It can also increase equipment life and improve tenant satisfaction by increasing the comfort and safety of occupants.”
And if this RCx did not have enough addictive properties:
- Median commissioning costs: $0.30 and $1.16 per square foot for existing buildings and new construction, respectively (and 0.4% of total construction costs for new buildings)
- Median whole-building energy savings: 16% and 13%
- Median payback times: 1.1 and 4.2 years
- Median benefit-cost ratios: 4.5 and 1.1
- Cash-on-cash returns: 91% and 23%
- Very considerable reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions were achieved, at a negative cost of -$110 and -$25/tonne CO2-equivalent.
So where to start? Well like a lot of trends California is a good place, and their Commissioning Collaborative Handbook. And this thing is such a mouthful I’ll need to further elaborate in future posts after I can digest this RCx meal.
The Whole Building and nothing but the Whole Building : BIM
Por Jim Foster - BIM, Built Environment, LEED - August 19, 2011
When speaking of the Built Environment, many people, including myself take an economic impact view of the building, that is existing buildings take up the majority of resources so how can we design/retorofit these things to be more efficient, more efficient means less consumption, means less operating costs all good things. So being late August and having the opportunity to read exciting things like, The Case Study of CALSTRS Headquarters, West Sacramento CA you are reminded of the more holistic approach to building design. The building was awarded LEED Gold and is in the process of qualifying for LEED EBOM (Existing Building Operating and Maintenance) so they compare it to other buildings in energy performance, however, also taken into account were the following factors:
Thermal comfort and overcooling
Speech privacy
Occupant controls for energy and comfort
Operator/building controls
Constituent input Landscaping
So how about taking into account the comfort and happiness of the occupants. I have to say “speech privacy” was not in my list of concerns until I read it about it here, but noticing that “the CalSTRS building has a smaller amount of square footage per occupant than the average for office building(s)” in this survey I guess it should not come as a surprise. There was also a complaint of ’over air conditioning’ on the North Side of the building. I would have to imagine that controls are in place to manage North/South orientation and the design of HVAC systems, if not that would seem to be glaring oversight during the design of the system and building since they would essentially be two different environments. However, it seems to me if you can quantify happiness, can you build it into design software? Honestly, with the advent of software, any software, it’s not only to automate tasks, but also get the knowledge of users into the software, hence making everyone more productive. So if you can put variables in like # of occupants into the design, assigning them SF can we have software suggest break out room for speech privacy, maybe this stuff is automated and in software and I am too dense to have discovered it, hell for all I know it’s a sub menu in Revit I have not discovered but automating what could be common sense, now that would be something.
“Hey Jim what’s up with putting a smiling cow image on this blog post?”
A) That’s a very cool picture
B) I was thinking happy environment, happy people and in this case happy environment, happy cow.
The study was conducted and published by the folks at the aptly titled, CBE (Center for the Built Environment) at UCAL Berkeley.
Deerfield Academy gets Nailed : PKNail captures existing buildings directly in Revit : BIM
Por Jim Foster - As Builts, BIM, Built Environment, Existing Conditions - July 27, 2011
So we have been working on PKNail for close to forever. Its intent is to capture existing conditions in Revit quicker, easier, better, faster etc. In theory, simple idea. In practice, much tougher. The product was born from my Architectural Services firm, Interioreview and from the need in creating a product/process that creates repeatable results. Have the knowledge in the software rather than with ‘Bob’. PKNail aids someone on the ground capture key data and tie out the model/dimensions on site rather than having to collect data and then sit in front of a computer off site hoping the whole thing goes together right. Using Interioreview as a skunk works to continue testing PKNail in the field to go against real world situations, fine tune features and in general try to break it so it will be rock solid when it hits the field. We have been persistent in our goal. I read somewhere recently that the first 90% takes 75% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 75%: It would not be unfair to put us squarely in the this math challenged adage.
Until recently when using PKNail in the field we also used products/techniques side by side to capture the same information. This was so we can compare results and make certain we never get hung up. However, I am proud to say we started and completed a complex project using only PKNail in the field to capture the majority of structure, walls (exterior/interior partioning/etc.) windows, doors, etc. PKNail allows a user to communicate/drive Revit wirelessly through a bluetooth enabled range finder. That is, press a button to measure a wall, take measurement, press another button and the wall gets built in Revit, add a window, door same things, move room to room, floor to floor. Can it help you put in complex gutter or roof sweeps? No. Can it it help you knock out structure and jump start your project, you bet.
The Deerfield Academy Arts Center is a series of interconnected building design/built over the past century. Incorporated into the strucutre is an Art Gallery, Theatre, Studios, Auditorium, Architecture Studio, etc. PKNail was used to capture the shell/exterior of the building and then used to move inside the structure to capture all the wall partioning, doors, etc. The exterior detail was modeled back in our office from field data, like stone work, exact window profiles and roofs.
PointKnown cited in Autodesk Energy Modeling White Paper : BIM
Por Jim Foster - 3D, BIM, Built Environment, disto - June 29, 2011
Autodesk has been concentrating on incorporating their energy modeling tools into their workflow, so much so, they are now calling it Rapid Energy Modeling and have outlined a variety of ways to capture a building’s geometry digitally so you can run it through their energy modeling engines. They outlined the following techniques/methods as the most cost effective for capturing exisitng conditions. Full paper available here: rem_white_paper_2011
Digital photographs
These are photographs of your building taken specifically for rapid energy modeling.
Aerial images
You can download oblique aerial images from Internet sites such as Google Earth or Microsoft®Bing™ mapping services. Alternatively, you can use images from commercial providers of geo-referenced aerial and oblique image libraries such as Pictometry.
Satellite images
Like aerial images, you can download orthogonal images of your building from sites such as Google Earth. RAPID ENERGY MODELING FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS
Laser distance meters
These low-cost laser meters are common surveying tools, and you can also use them onsite to capture key measurements of your building.
PointKnown was cited as the software to use when utilzing laser range finders and capturing a building in revit.
If you plan to capture existing conditions using a laser distance meter, you can use PKNail software from PointKnown (www.pointknown.com) to process those measurements and create a Revit model of your building. By inputting a few simple field measurements PKNail will build a Revit model of the existing structure, in the field, in real time.
This approach involves trained survey personnel that walk around the perimeter of a building and measure key points on the building. The PKNail software utilizes Bluetooth®-enabled laser distance meters to capture dimensional data in the field and send it directly to a laptop loaded with the Revit Architecture or Revit MEP. By capturing data in a specific sequence, the PKNail software creates a Revit model representing the skin of your building as it is being measured.
While we wait for the ‘magic wand’ that digitizes existing buildings while you walk through it, and when I mean digitize, I mean scaled, architectural objects that can be scheduled, processed, etc. more and more technologies are being developed to speed the ‘realty capture’ of buildings. The argument for using PKNail is that the exterior model you build is natively in Revit Architecture and if you want to move inside for interior wall partitioning, etc. for adaptive reuse, etc. you can do that all by utilizing the key pad interface and the laser meter.
Not changing the world just making your day to day a little easier, increase productivity, get more accurate, teeing it up so you can knock it out of the park.
Pointools plugs in SketchUp : Use Point Clouds directly inside SketchUp Modeling Environment : BIM
Por Jim Foster - 3D, Built Environment - November 30, 2010
Interestingly enough, while at Autodesk University, Pointools announced their plug in available for SketchUp. Make the jump to read all about it, but I guess with this announcement maybe the next thing we’ll see is the Google car with a scanner on top instead of just a camera. Google and Autodesk are now squarely in the same ring.
Reality Capture #2 on Autodesk Labs Hit List : Project Galileo to join other tools. BIM
Por Jim Foster - 3D, Autodesk, BIM, Built Environment, Point to Point Laser Technology, Revit - November 30, 2010
As reported by Matt Ball, Brian Mathews, the Autodesk VP in charge of Autodesk Labs, gave a media briefing updating ‘his Seven Technology Trends lecture with example projects.’ Reality capture or as otherwise stated, turning analog into digital, being #2 on the hit list. So capturing the Built Environment is starting to get serious traction, and while I hesitate to use the word traction, well, that’s what its getting.
Previously in the conversation people would talk about all the wonderful things software can do for buildings, then you realize the majority of construction is in the built environment and it becomes, well just give me the building, or at lest the digital equivalent of the building and look at the wonderful things software can do, however, most presupposed the digital equivalent of the building. Not anymore, more and more companies are releasing software and tools to capture the built environment, or call it reality capture if you like, but soon there are going to be a lot more tools on your shelf.
Autodesk has released, Project Photofly . and will soon release Project Galileo which according to its splash page, “is an easy-to-use planning tool for creating 3D city models from civil, geospatial and building data, and 3D models.” Plus Autodesk has release shape extraction tools from PointClouds directly inside of AutoCAD. Rand Technology/Avatech/Imaginit hybrid has released PointCloud manipulation tools inside of Revit and we are in the final beta of PKNail, a PPLT (Point to Point Laser Technology) system that allows a user to drive Revit commands and enter dimensional data directly from a range finder allowing a user to build a Revit model in the field. Plus we recently saw the beautiful kinect hack allowing a user to capture and even measure 3D video. I can’t say which technology or mixture of technologies will work best for you, but your job is going to get easier.
Laser to Revit : Laser to BIM : New Tools to Capture the Built Environment
Por Jim Foster - BIM, Built Environment, disto, Laser BIM, Revit - November 13, 2010
With PointKnown’s introduction of PKNail and PPLT (Point to Point Laser Technology) utilizing a Leica Disto and Rand Technologies recent press release announcing the ability to manipulate and manage laser scan, point cloud data within Revit the opportunity and tools to capture existing conditions continues to grow. Combine that with the growing need to capture existing conditions for energy modeling and retrofits and you can see an industry emerging, not just using it for special circumstances but start capturing existing structures in 3D/BIM for uses that range from space planning, facility management, energy audits and beyond.
While it has been reported and analyzed that some of the biggest frustrations, time sinks and expenditures is that lack of interoperability between software, and redundant efforts between disciplines, that is creating the same thing, many times for each discipline the advent of BIM authoring tools like Revit, and ways to combine and work with them can help firms and individuals reduce rework and create more opportunities for their design and construction work; looks like a win all around. And with these technologies firms can start on existing structures in BIM and Revit and have all the benefits.
Obama Administration Boosts Retrofits : Biden Announces Fed Program
Por Jim Foster - BIM, Built Environment, Sustainable Retrofits - November 12, 2010
Am I calling it or what? As reported by Martin LaMonica on CNET and the Steven Thomma of the Miami Herald Vice President Joe Biden with US Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday unveiled a new federal program to make it easier for Americans to make their homes more energy efficient, saying it will help people save money and create new jobs for contractors.Excerpts for the release below:
“The initiatives announced today are putting the Recovery Through Retrofit report’s recommendations into action – giving American families the tools they need to invest in home energy upgrades.” said Vice President Biden. “Together, these programs will grow the home retrofit industry and help middle class families save money and energy.”
“The Home Energy Score will help make energy efficiency easy and accessible to America’s families by providing them with straightforward and reliable information about their homes’ energy performance and specific, cost-effective energy efficiency improvements that will save them money on their monthly energy bills,” said Secretary Chu.
Under this voluntary program, trained and certified contractors will use a standardized assessment tool developed by DOE and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to quickly evaluate a home and generate useful, actionable information for homeowners or prospective homebuyers. With only about 40 inputs required, the Home Energy Scoring Tool lets a contractor evaluate a home’s energy assets, like its heating and cooling systems, insulation levels and more, in generally less than an hour. That means a homeowner can see how their home’s systems score, regardless of whether a particular homeowner takes long or short showers or keeps their thermostat set high or low.
The following states and municipalities are participating in the pilot program: Charlottesville, Virginia; Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; Minnesota; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Indiana; Portland, Oregon; South Carolina; Texas; and Eagle County, Colorado. Learn more about each of the testing locations along with details on how to participate in the Home Energy Score program.
Consumers can apply for up to $25,000 in PowerSaver loans through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which expects that 24,000 homes will qualify during a two-year pilot program, according to USA Today.
This home energy retrofit program follows a $5 billion weatherization investment that was part of the stimulus package last year. Another effort is Home Star, nicknamed Cash for Caulkers, which would provide rebates to consumers for investing in energy efficiency retrofits.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20022184-54.html#ixzz155UA7FTa
How does this effect BIM users/developers, etc.?
Commercial deployment will be huge and has more robust documentation and reporting needs, plus these firms getting into it will need to have better tools, etc as the race begins to fill these needs and to differentiate themselves from competition, imagine a 3D BIM model with all the reporting built into it. I have to imagine the plug ins are already under development. Additionally, did you notice the certification needs recommended for this. Strap it on, let’s get back to work.
Buckeyes on board with BIM – Post Protocol : Ohio BIM
Por Jim Foster - Adoption, BIM, Built Environment - November 11, 2010
So I think the NY Post would be impressed with that amount of alliteration. But as reported before Ohio becomes the third state to require BIM on projects. The Ohio SAO (State Architects Office) posted the protocols and available here. But here are the nuts of the requirement.
- All projects (new construction, additions, and alterations) with a total project value funded through state appropriations of $4 million or greater; or
- All projects (new construction, additions, and alterations) funded through state appropriations where the total estimated value of plumbing, fire protection, HVAC, and electrical work within the project is greater than 40% of the value of construction.
Greening the Built Environment : Autodesk joins IBM’s Green Sigma Coalition : IBM Flexing its Market Power Muscle : BIM
Por Jim Foster - BIM, Built Environment - October 5, 2010
Quick jumble from IBM to BIM and it seems a lot of threads are coming together between IBM and the AECOM community. Smart Buildings and Smart Cities, IBM and Dassault, IBM Maximo, etc. How this comes to grind with LEED, and EnergyStar initiatives , etc remains to be seen but there is quite a roster to this invite only list. Charter members include: Johnson Controls, Honeywell Building Solutions, ABB, Eaton, ESS, Cisco, Siemens Building Technologies Division, Schneider Electric and SAP but nothing like owning the process and selling services, hardware, software, product to achieve Green Sigma. The process itself :
“Combines real-time metering and monitoring with advanced analytics and dashboards that allow clients to make better decisions that improve efficiency, lower costs and reduce environmental impact.”
IBM goes on to outline the validation process which is, you guessed it, validated by IBM. How this differs from LEED which:
… is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
Now I am a capitalist so increasing shareholder value is something I take to heart, sure there’s a lot more in the mix than that and who am I to take IBM to task for flexing its market power muscle but aren’t we talking the same side of the coin only IBM wants to own the coin too. One could argue that Green Sigma is the practical application of LEED principles. That should keep respective communication departments off my back. Regardless of who owns the process the end goal for each is laudable, and now proven that ‘green’ is good business.
As reported by Lauren Browne at Connect Press IBM brought Autodesk in for its expertise in modeling and the built environment.
“It occurred to IBM, that it would make sense, given that the built environment requires multiple layers of solution sets including hardware, software, services, financing, etc. that no one company could do this (tackle greening the built environment) in isolation. And if they did, they would be handicapping themselves.” - Emma Stewart, Senior Program Lead, Sustainability, Autodesk.
This could help explain the Photofly and PointCloud tools expected in the most recent release of Autocad but if you start doing the math, +$400 billion in sustainable retrofits, +75% of construction done in the built environment you understand why the big guns are out.
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