Energy Design Finds Best Components

table

table-2

Case Study: Best Set of Building Components

New residential home (4,000 Sq. Ft.) to be built in Boston, MA suburb. The clients wanted to optimize energy efficiency of the house at the lowest cost. The architect used Ekotrope’s HomeSEED™ to compare the original design to other possible energy components.

Original Design 

Five components selected during the original process (pre-Ekotrope).

Ekotrope Analysis 

The software was able to analyze 1,280 possible combinations using 21 different components (below) and determine the energy rating and costs for each set of designs.

How it works:

Energy simulation engine runs all 1,280 permutations to determine the lowest cost design versus the desired energy rating goals (in LEED EA credits).

Results: 

Using one of Ekotrope’s recommended designs (left most red point in Figure 1), the same energy efficiency goal could be reached for $25,000 less than the original design. How was this achieved? By improving the furnace and air conditioner efficiency while reducing the wall and window insulation, the same energy rating was achieved at a significantly lower cost.