Building performance analyses in Energy3D

Energy3D (Tree image credit: SketchUp Warehouse and Ethan McElroy)

A zero-energy building is a building with zero net energy consumption over a year. In other words, the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to or even less than the amount of renewable energy it produces through solar panels or wind turbines. A building that produces more renewable energy than it consumes over the course of a year is sometimes also called an energy-plus building. Highly energy-efficient buildings hold a crucial key to a sustainable future.


One of the goals of our Energy3D software is to provide a powerful software environment that students can use to learn about how to build a sustainable world (or understand what it takes to build such a world). Energy3D is unique because it is based on computational building physics, done in real time to produce interesting heat map visualization resembling infrared thermography. The connections to basic science concepts such as heat and temperature make the tool widely applicable in schools. Furthermore, at a time when teachers are required by the new science standards to teach basic engineering concepts and skills in classrooms, this tool may be even more relevant and useful. The easy-to-use user interface enables students to rapidly sketch up buildings of various shapes, creating a deep design space that provides many opportunities of exploration, inquiry, and learning.

In the latest version of Energy3D (Version 3.0), students can compute the energy gains, losses, and usages of a building over the course of a year. These data can be used to analyze the energy performance of the building under design. These results can help students decide their next steps in a complex design project. Without these simulation data to rationalize design choices, students' design processes would be speculative or random.

A complex engineering design project usually has many elements and variables. Supporting students to investigate each individual element or variable is key to helping them develop an understanding of the related concept. Situating this investigation in a design project enables students to explore the role of each concept on system performance. With the analytic tools in Energy3D, students can pick an individual building component such as a window or a solar panel and then analyze its energy performance. This kind of analysis can help students determine, for example, where a solar panel should be installed and which direction it should face. The video in this post shows how these analytic tools in Energy3D work.