Building Performance Analysis - Spaces & Zones

The geometry defined by the Bounding Elements in the Revit Physical Model, in conjunction with the Volumes they define, make up a critical piece to accurate BPA.  Without the proper metadata to define the conditions in those Volumes, one must make a lot of assumptions to produce BPA results.  Like I spoke about in my last post, this metadata is the "fuel" that gets fed into our BPA capabilities.

In Revit MEP 2009, we define that information in 3 places:

• Project Information
• HVAC Zone Elements
• Space Elements

We covered the Project Information in my past post, today we're going to cover the fuel that exists on the HVAC Zone and Space Elements.

It's important to note that while this information exists on these elements, that information can be authored:

• In the Heating & Cooling Loads dialog: In this dialog you can multi-select Spaces or Zones, and author the information for all selected elements.
     
   
• On the Elements themselves: In a view you can select individual elements or multi-select elements and then author this data from the Element Properties dialog.
     
   
• In a Schedule: Much of the information can be scheduled in a Zone or Space schedule, and then be authored there.

Just like many other things in Revit, you have access to that same data in many interfaces, and a change in one location updates the core definition of that data.  That means that all locations update immediately.

2009 Improvements
With the release of Revit MEP 2009, we've completed two different categories of improvements to the metadata that exists on HVAC Zone and Space Elements.

• Additional "Overrides" of Space Assumptions - We make a lot of determinations for the environmental conditions based upon the Building Type/Space Type that's defined in the Revit Project.  We have allowed for explicit control over additional environmental conditions in Revit MEP 2009.  This will allow you to override the Building Type/Space Type assumptions if desired.
  
  For example, the Outside Air (AKA fresh air) quantities can now be explicitly defined by the user on the HVAC Zone, rather than be defined by the Builging Type/Space Type assumptions.
• Location of Metadata - The introduction of the HVAC Zone element creates a more logical location for some of our metadata than the Space Element, so we've moved some metadata to these more logical places.

Now let's cover this information in detail in a video.

Building Performance Analysis Data - HVAC Zones & Spaces

Next we're going to put this all to work and discuss using the Heating & Cooling Loads dialog to calculate the peak loads for our Revit projects.

Comments

[Peter Goodman]

Hi Kyle, I am in Australia and I was wondering if this is where I can enter my own metadata to suit Australia Standards for Building Construction? As in to override the standard Building Construction types for North America. Also can I set up my own Standard Building Types for Building Envelopes?

[Kyle Bernhardt]

Peter,
You can not define custom Constructions in the application today. We have gone through a good deal of effort to have a vast catalog of constructions included in the application. I would be very surprised if you could not find a construction type that is very similar to what you are seeking.

If you have specific constructions that are not on the list please let us know. Or, even better, provide a specific standard that contains these constructions for our reference.

As for the "standard building types", you can define these in your Project Template file. Any projects created from that file will contain the Construction Types you have defined.

Cheers,
Kyle