Energy analysis in buildings with building information modelling applications

It is known that a significant part of energy use comes from the houses. By using building information modeling programs, it is possible to perform analyzes to reduce energy use during the design phase of buildings or to increase the energy efficiency of an applied building. In this study, the effect of Building Information Modeling (BIM) applications on the energy performance of buildings have been demonstrated by an application study. BIM can be defined as a set of policies, processes, and technologies created to manage the design and project data in a digital format throughout the life cycle of a building. This approach constitutes a three-dimensional model-based process of the construction sector that provides information and tools to plan, design, build and manage buildings and infrastructure more efficiently. In this study, energy analytical model of a house which is currently in use was created with Revit, a building information modeling program. Efforts were made to use energy efficiently through the model. Firstly, in order to confirm the accuracy of the study, the heating and cooling loads of the selected house in Autodesk Revit 2017 and Carrier's Hourly Analysis Program (HAP) were calculated and the results were compared. As a result, it was seen that the heating and cooling loads for both programs were close to each other. Then, the parameters that will affect the building energy performance (building orientation, south façade transparency ratio, insulation material, and thickness) were determined for the current condition of the selected house and analysis studies were conducted in which these parameters were handled separately. Results were evaluated according to energy analysis derived from fuel and electricity use, life cycle assessment and CO₂ emissions from fuel use. The current position of the building is accepted as "0˚ orientation, and the orientation is changed with 15 ˚ incrementing angles and + 195º is determined as the most appropriate angle. In the present case, the southern facade transparency ratio, which is 6.5 %, were analyzed for 15, 30, 40, 50, 65, 80 % values and 40 % was determined as the appropriate transparency ratio. For the external walls which are not insulated at present case, evaluations have been made for XPS, EPS, glass wool and rock wool with a thickness of 3, 5 and 8 cm and XPS of 8 cm has been determined as the suitable insulation material and thickness. Finally, the determined building orientation, south façade opening, insulation material, and thickness were used to compare the alternative building with the existing building. Accordingly, the current life cycle cost of $ 62810 was $ 46574 for the alternative case generated. CO₂ emission values obtained for fuel use were obtained as 6.2 Mg and 3.3 Mg for current and alternative situations, respectively. As a result, it has been demonstrated that the energy performance of buildings can be improved during the design phase or using BIM-based programs for an applied structure and thus the environmental impact will be achieved.