Spring is here, let there be trees!

Trees in Energy3D.

Trees around a house not only add natural beauty but also increase energy efficiency. Deciduous trees to the south of a house let sunlight shine into the house through south-facing windows in the winter while blocking sunlight in the summer, thus providing a simple but effective solution that attains both passive heating and passive cooling using the trees' shedding cycles. Trees to the west and east of a house can also create significant shading to help keep the house cool in the summer. All together, a well-planed landscape can reduce the temperature of a house in a hot day by up to 20°C.

The tree to the south side shades the house in the summer.

With the latest version of Energy3D, students can add trees in designs. As shown in the second image in this blog post, the Solar Irradiation Simulator in Energy3D can visualize how trees shade the house and provide passive cooling in the summer.

The Solar Irradiation Simulator also provides numeric results to help students make design decisions. The calculated data show that the tree to the south of the house is able to reduce the sunlight shined through the window on the first floor that is closest to it by almost 90%. Students can do this easily by adding and removing the tree, re-run the simulation, and then compare the numbers. They will be able to add trees of different heights and types (deciduous or evergreen). There will be a lot of design variables that students can choose and test.

A design challenge is to combine windows, solar panels, and trees to reduce the yearly cost of a building to nearly zero or even negative (meaning that the owner of the house actually makes money by giving unused energy produced by the solar panels to the utility company). This is no longer just a possibility -- it has been a reality, even in a northern state like Massachusetts!