Heating & Cooling Load Analysis in Revit MEP 2009

One of the most powerful value propositions of the Revit Platform is a model-based environment.  I knew that when I first read about the product and saw it years back, before I started working at Autodesk.  To me, the writing was on the wall...an intelligent model can be leveraged for so many design tasks.  Pretty pictures of your designs, composed with lines, arcs, and circles?  Well, let's just say that there's a little less long-term value embedded in such a deliverable.

One of the immediate values to MEP Engineers, even before they have made any major decisions about their building service designs, is to leverage the architect's model to determine the peak energy requirements of their design.  That peak energy requirement needs to be met by the building services, which are up to the MEP Engineer to design.  Their designed systems must remove from the building the peak cooling load in the summer, and add to the building the peak heating load in the winter.  How they go about achieving this task plays out later in the design process, but you must start with the energy requirements.

We understood this requirement at Autodesk, and saw the potential for Revit MEP to meet this need for MEP Engineers.  With the release of Revit MEP 2008 last year, we delivered the first version of this capabilty to our user base.  This year, we're delivering the second release of this capability, which takes advantage of the capabilities I have outlined extensively in previous posts.  Let's see how it all works.

Heating and Cooling Load Analsis in Revit MEP 2009

I'm sure you can see the value here, and the capabilities that we've provided to MEP Engineers even before they model a single duct, pipe, or circuit.  With the major capability of the application covered, we can move on the other enhancements that are delivered with Revit MEP 2009.

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Comments

[Chris]

Kyle,

Just one comment regarding a statement you made in the above video (H&C load analysis Revit 2009). You indicated that the loads are not simulated in all months and that just one winter month is utilized for a heating load and then some summers months for a cooling load. There are times when a space can have a cooling load peak in the winter time. For example a space with a south exposure with all glass curtainwall. This type of space will often have a cooling peak load in January due to the solar incident angle at that time imposing a large solar load which more than offsets the conductive heat loss at those ambient temperatures.