Energy Consumption and Cost Data in Ecotect

[Anonymous]

We use Ecotect to illustrate heat flow and energy consumption to architetcural students. When using Calculate-Thermal Analysis-Resource Consumption, we can only get a cumulative graph of daily energy use in BTUS. This is somewahat confusing to students because heating and cooling btus do not cost the same. We cannot figure out how to get Ecotect to graph energy use in elctricity and natural gas. Help?

[Pennetier1]

Hello ggwitt, 

Ecotect does not actually list a cost for the heating or cooling of the space; it only does that when an APPLIANCE object is located in the model, and its energy output set in its material properties.

One of the reason for this is that the heating and cooling loads calculated by Ecotect are not energy loads from an HVAC system, but rather the amount of heating or cooling that a theoretical HVAC system would have to deal with to keep the space within the thermostat settings. Thus one cannot quite compare the heating and cooling loads that Ecotect calculates with what a HVAC system would use in real life (with various efficiencies etc...).

The calculations are still useful in that the heating and cooling loads will still change with design variations.

To have Ecotect graph energy use in Electricity or Natural gas, again you have to have an APPLIANCE object or a LIGHT object.  Once it is in the model, you can go to its material properties and assign it an energy usage (W).  You can also assign a simple schedule to this appliance under the Selection information control panel > Activation > Time off / Time off, or create a complex daily/hourly schedule.

I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Let me know if you have more questions on this topic, otherwise please accept as a solution so that others can benefit from this information.

Cheers,