Practical Energy and Cost Optimization Methods for Selecting Massing, Materials, and Technologies

This paper proposes two methods using the reduced-order Energy Performance Calculation (EPC) toolkit with parametric building models and optimizers in Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, and MATLAB to provide rapid feedback that gives architects more confidence in their decision between alternatives on energy and cost performance. The first method helps architects to understand and optimize the performance of a set of building massing parameters through an energy demand analysis. The second method seeks to optimize for lowest life cycle cost combinations of material and technology parameters that meet or exceed operational energy efficiency targets. The methods are compared with existing prescriptive methodologies and tested as part of a professional office building design process to demonstrate how they can quickly and accurately lead an architectural design team to improvements in energy performance and construction cost.

keywords: Optimization, Energy, Cost, Practice, Parametric