Shading Analysis for each Façade

[dihidrojenmonoksit]

There is a Project at skyscraper region of İstanbul. I need to obtain shading hours and daylighted hours data throughout year for each façade of the building in order to control position of venetian blinds. I am aimed to decrease cooling load and to prevent glaring thanks to venetian blind controlling by means of building automotion system.

I have modelled the Project and surrounded buildings where big probably affect dynamic shading at ECOTECT. I have attached model as ecotect file and autocad file at attachment. Orange building is the Project where I try to find shading hours. Could you kindly give me information which approach you recommend me to follow in order to obtain shading hour data throughout year for each façade?  

I have followed Calculate > Sun Path Diagram > Stereographic Diagram (Calculate Shading)> Tabular Diagram (Shading column). Do you think does this way work to solve the problem? What does exactly the meaning of shading (%) data? Does it mean shading (unexposured field to sunlight) ratio of whole façade or darkness ratio of surface?

I will be so grateful, if you allocate your valuable time to answer above questions. 

[Pennetier1]

Hello dihidrojenmonoksit , 

I understand what you are after.  Let's see if I can help here.

First of all, you model was imported into Ecotect using the wrong scale - you can see by measuring your buildings that they are only a few inches (cm) hight.  When you import your CAD file, make sure to select the correct sale under the "Scale Object By" drop down menu.

Once you have the model to the right scale, you are ready to do the calculations.

I would probably go with the Amount of Sun hours.

Select the surfaces of your building, go to the Calculate menu > Solar Access Analysis > Shading, Overshadowing and Sulight Hours then follow the wizard.

You can do this for a specified period, such as the entire year.  I like to use the Average Daily values (instead of Cumulative) for this analysis.  Select only selected objects and Perform the Detail Shading Calculations; the surface sampling can be set to high if you are using large surfaces, low for smaller surfaces. The result will give you an average daily hour of sunlight.  Obviously, the inverse of that will be the hours that do not receive sunlight (shade).

You can manipulate some of the data under the Object Attributes, at the bottom of the Display Settings control panel.

For a better view of your large surface shading, you can subdivide your large surfaces into smaller surface (under calculate menu > surface subdivision) and run the same analysis on the newly created grid.

Using the Sunpath diagram feature will not give you the number of hours "shaded" but rather the amount of the surface (%) that is in the shade, so probably not the best method for you.

Note that Revit will also allow you to do this directly within its CAD interface.

I hope this helps.

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,