Insight 360 Assumptions

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I've been getting questions from co-workers about what assumptions are being used when creating scenarios in Insight 360 from Revit models.  For example:

1. Are the energy settings in Revit carried over to Insight 360?  For example, if I changed the building type from Office to Parking Structure, would the EUI be adjusted accordingly?
2. When the model comes from Revit into Insight 360, how is the ASHRAE 90.1 and Architecture 2030 benchmarks determined?  Does it take the building use/type into account when comparing against those benchmarks?
3. How does the operating schedule of the model analyzed? Is at 12/5 schedule mean that the other 12 hours a day the HVAC is turned off completely or does it maintain a minimum comfort threshold?
4. When you adjust he WWR, does it adjust the % difference against the imported glazing % (how it looks in the 3D Insight model view) or does it reset the glazing %?
5. Is there a document somewhere the explains more about the detailed assumptions used for the various Insight widgets?  These would be useful when trying to understand what exactly is being factored into the calculations.

Thanks,

Justin

[mstein7484]

Hello Justin,

Our apologies that Insight 360 documentation isn’t yet readily available. We will soon have it posted. In the interim I’ve attached a document which I hope will answer your questions.

1. Insight 360 uses your Revit energy settings when you select “Space” export category in the Energy Settings dialog. For anything not specified in your Space settings, or if you select “Room Export Category, Insight 360 applies the default settings for an Office building type; it does not use the building type setting in Revit.
2. The ASHRAE 90.1 benchmark applies the ASHRAE minimum efficiency settings for HVAC efficiency (it assume an HVAC system type based upon ASHRAE 90.1 building size and height categories), envelope thermal properties for your project location’s ASHRAE Climate Zone, and lighting power density for Offices.The Architecture 2030 benchmark used by Insight 360 is based upon a Target of 70% better than the Median of comparable buildings. Refer to Architecture 2030 Challenge for details on the Median. Insight 360 assumes a building type of Office; uses the location and size of your building, as well as the energy usage and utility rate from the analysis of your project. (Insight 360 uses the State-wide average utility rates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration for U.S. locations, and rates from the International Energy Agency, and multiple other sources for non-US locations.) Essentially if you were to use the Energy Star Target Finder tool you would arrive at the same value used by Insight 360. 
3. Refer to the Occupancy Schedules section in Reference for Energy Analysis for Autodesk® Revit® for details about Building Type schedules (such as Office); and the Building Operating Schedules section for details about generic operating schedules (such as a 12/5 schedule).
4. When you adjust the WWR, the glazing percentage is reset.
5. See the attached document for more detail on the Insight Widget settings. Refer to the Reference for Energy Analysis for Autodesk® Revit® documentation for more details on the other energy settings used in the analysis. The Assumptions and Default Values in Green Building Studio article has additional information.

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

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thank you Marjorie for the explanations.  Regarding the question about building type and how the benchmarks are correlated - I'm still confused as to why all models brought into Insight are treated as "office" type buildings?  The median EUI for an office is different than that of a hospital or school, so how is this a useful metric if all buildings being analyzed are treated the same?

Thanks,

Justin

[Mohammad_Asl]

Hi Justin,

We understand that you are expecting to see your exact settings in Revit to show up in Insight360. At this time we are only able to export buildings as office. In this case, since the building type would only define the default values for energy simulation of the baserun, you can always change the factor widgets on Insight360 page to meet the requirement for your building type (i.e. lighting power density, equipment power density of a hospital). We will add this request to our backlog and hopefully we will address it soon. 

Here to help if additional clarification is needed, otherwise please accept as a solution so that others can benefit from this information.

[Anonymous]

Hello Mohammad,

Thank you for the explanation.  I've been doing some testing between Revit and Insight, and it appears that if 'spaces' are exported instead of 'rooms' (from the energy settings dialog in Revit), then the EUI in Insight is adjusted accordingly based on the building type selected within Revit.  Can you confirm this?  I'm curious why spaces would trigger this function, but rooms do not.  Any further clarification on this would be appreciated.  I presume based on your comments that FormIt 360 functions similarly (all buildings are assumed to have an Office type EUI), but I could not find a way to change the building type within FormIt.  I guess someone could bring a FromIt model into Revit, select 'spaces' to export and change the building type in the energy settings?  I hope a building type selection function will be incorporated into FormIt in the near future so it can be brought directly into Insight with the correct EUI range/baseline.  Expecting users to know which widgets to adjust to meet the appropriate building type EUI is not realistic and somewhat defeats the purpose of doing this type of early comparative analysis if the EUI numbers are not even in the correct building type range.

On a related note, I also noticed that some of the widget option settings in Insight do not necessarily meet code requirements based on the climate zone of the project location.  For example, the glass type options - none of them currently meet the SHGC minimum required in an ASHRAE climate zone 3.  I realize that an update has been rolled out to Insight recently that shows the BIM setting(s) in your imported model.  This is a useful option if design teams know what materials and performance criteria they are using, but if the comparisons do not even meet code (glazing type for example), then the improvement delta will be skewed, correct?  Are there any plans to adjust the comparative options on applicable widgets based on climate zone code requirements?

Thank you for answering these questions and I look forward to these being compiled into a helpful user guide in the near future.

Thanks,

Justin

[mstein7484]

Hi Justin

Thanks for all of your good questions. At the current time the difference between what is used in the Revit settings vs which settings are coming from Insight 360 is mixed. We are working on simplifying the settings

The Revit Space Export Category is related to building operation and mechanical settings (electrical power densities, etc.).  The Room Export Category relates to typical architectural settings (envelope properties). However, there are some overlaps.

With the Space export category, Insight will use some of the settings for the Space/Building Type selection, and some from the Insight 360 Office building type settings. Here is a quick summary, which is hopefully useful.

The following Revit Space/Building settings are used in the analysis when Space Export Category is used:

• Lighting schedules
• Equipment (plug loads, not HVAC equipment, not elevator or escalators, not vending machines) schedules
• Occupancy schedules
• People Heat Gain
• Outside Air if specified, otherwise Insight 360
• Lighting and Equipment power density
• Heating & Cooling Design Temperatures
• Revit Conceptual Constructions in Revit 2017
• Revit Construction Families in Revit 2016
• Revit Construction Families in Revit 2017 with Detailed Elements select in Energy Settings

The following Insight 360 Office building type settings are used:

• HVAC System
• Fan power and schedules
• Temperature setpoints 
• Infiltration rates and schedules
• Elevator, escalators, vending machine power density & schedules
• Architecture 2030 Target
• All other settings pertinent to energy settings, which are not specified/available in Revit

You are correct, the widget settings for glazing currently do not meet ASHRAE 90.1 minimum SHCG settings for some Climate Zones. We are working on improving these settings. 

We appreciate that you are investigating Insight 360, and we welcome your feedback! Many of the features are in the MVP (Minimal Viable Product) stage and we are working hard to expand and improve the capabilities of the tool.

Cheers,

[Anonymous]

Hi Marjorie,

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I think I'm clear on what carries over from the Revit Space export settings and you briefly mentioned that the Revit Room export function includes model properties such as "building envelope"...could you explain in more detail what is included specifically? It would be very helpful to have a detailed list of what is exported to Insight 360 when Spaces are selected vs when Rooms are selected in the energy settings. Additionally, it would be good to know which settings are likely to change as the Revit>Insight workflow is developed further. Thank you again for answering my many questions. It is helping us use the tool to communicate more effectively.

Thanks,
Justin

[mstein7484 · Accepted solution]

Hi Justin,

I'm attaching a spreadsheet, which hopefully will help clarify things. 

In the near future the Insight 360 settings will use the Building Type specified in the Revit Energy Settings dialog, which will carry over to the settings which currently assume an Office building type. Additionally the HVAC System in the Revit Energy Settings dialog will also be used in the Insight 360 analysis.

We appreciate you kicking the tires with Insight 360, and offering your valuable feedback.

Regards,

Marjorie

[Anonymous]

Are building elements carried over to Insight 360 when generating an insight of a more detailed model where building elements are selected in the energy settings, or is Insight 360 just designed for conceptual massing?

[brown]

It's a couple years later, and I'm just trying out Insight so please forgive me if I'm missing something obvious.  I tried analyzing a very simple box.  I have set the Building Type to Dining Cafeteria Fast Food (it will be a middle school cafeteria,) Building Operating System to K-12 School, and Export Category to Spaces.  The Benchmark for ASHRAE90.1 is showing up as quite a bit *lower* (at 264 kWh/sq meter yr) than the Architecture 2030 benchmark (498 kWh/sq meter yr.)   I would have expected the opposite.   Is Insight now generating the ASHRAE90.1 benchmark based on an office building but the Architecture 2030 benchmark based on the actual building type?  Or is something else at work here?  Is there an updated spreadsheet of the assumptions that Insight is now using?

And is there a way to show results in kBTU/sf yr (the units with which I am more familiar, as this is how it's reported to 2030 Commitment.)

 

[tingwangFEYK4]

Hello Marjorie,

We are in 2020 now, I am wondering if the AIA 2030 benchmark used by Insight 360 has been adjusted to a target of 80% better than the Median of comparable buildings. 

Thanks!