Integrated Building Energy Design of a Danish Office Building Based on Monte Carlo Simulation Method

The focus on reducing buildings energy consumption is gradually increasing, and the optimization of a building’s performance and maximizing its potential leads to great challenges between architects and engineers. In this study, we collaborate with a group of architects on a design project of a new office building located in Aarhus, Denmark. Building geometry, floor plans and employee schedules were obtained from the architects which is the basis for this study. This study aims to simplify the iterative design process that is based on the traditional trial and error method in the late design phases and improve the collaboration efficiency.

Monte Carlo Simulation method is adopted to simulate both the energy performance and indoor climate of the building. Building physics parameters, including characteristics of facades, walls, windows, etc., are taken into consideration, and thousands of combinations of these parameters are screened to find those can achieve the design criteria. The software Be15 and BSim are used as two-step solvers to process the calculation of energy consumption and indoor environment.

A solution pool is then obtained for architects to choose from, see Fig. 2 and 3. All these solutions can fulfil the requirements and leaves additional design freedom for the architects. This study utilizes global design exploration with Monte Carlo Simulations, in order to form feasible solutions for architects and improves the collaboration efficiency between architects and engineers.