IES Blog

This month the IES social media helpdesk has had some questions from users about how they can speed up the drawing process when creating your model with ModelIT. Well fear not loyal users as Gary Nixon, from our Dublin office, has compiled the following hints and tips videos to help you become more efficient when using ModelIT. As always, if you would like your question to feature in a future Q & AEC Blog head to our Facebook, Twitter or email me at john.goucher@iesve.com.

Stamping your model

Drawing over a DXF in elevation view

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Tags:aec, IES, Modeling

This month’s question and answer comes directly from a discussion that was taking place on our LinkedIn IES VE user group. The group acts as a great platform for users to share their knowledge, experience and opinions and we have recently reached over 1,000 members (Go us!). The question that features in this edition comes from Ciaran McCabe, a thermal modelling consultant using the VE in Ireland. The answers were kindly provided by Rosemary, our BREEAM expert.

Do you guys tend to use IES VE Radiance or Flucs DL to measure daylight factor and uniformity to demonstrate compliance with BREEAM HEA 1? Flucs DL is a much faster module to use on larger buildings. Any opinions on this topic welcome.

We would tend to use FlucsDL for large buildings as all the rooms can be analysed at once. For BREEAM I would recommend that you set up rooms groups so that you have “occupied” and “unoccupied” rooms grouped together. The “occupied” rooms can then be selected and average daylight factors/uniformity output produced.

I now see there is a new feature in Flucs DL which deals with Sky View. Sky view at 0.7m is one way of demonstrating compliance with BREEAM Hea 1 - Daylighting. I was just having a play around with this recently and wondered if this feature is fully operational or is it still being tested. Is there any documention on how the VE calculates sky view? I suppose what I am getting at here is if I was to use this feature I would need some way to validate the result.

Sky View was included in FlucsPro and FlucsDL for BREEAM HEA1 Daylighting purposes; however it is active whenever you have performed a daylight calculation. If there is a direct line from any point on the sky grid to any point on the working plane grid (through windows and openings but without passing through any obstruction) then that point has a sky view of 1. If not it has a sky view of 0. Using a threshold value of, say, 0.5 will allow you to see the percentage area with a sky view. It is easier to see the levels if you are not in contour view (choose filled contours or grey-scale instead).

To have your question featured in our monthly Questions & AEC series, just get in touch with us on Twitter, Facebook or drop me an email at john.goucher@iesve.com.

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Tags:aec, BREEAM, daylighting, IES, LinkedIn

This month, we have had loads of questions from you about UK Compliance and the changes with Part L 2010. So we will be focussing on how to use the Virtual Environment to create UK EPCs, if you are outside of the UK, sorry, this one is VERY specific!

As many of you will know by now Part L 2010 came into force in October last year, even though the related EPC section has been delayed until the 27th of March this year. This means that building regulations DER/ TER (both at design and completion stage) will be to Part L 2010, but the EPC calculations will still have to be carried out using Part L 2006 methodologies. You can read more about this here. This has posed an interesting problem for our software team, and as such we have had to come up with an innovative solution.

To make it as easy for you as possible, we have introduced a brand new backward compatibility function that enables you to easily switch, on the same computer, between the 2010 and 2006 IES VE Compliance modules.  This is essential for designers that need to access Part L 2006 software for ‘as built’ or EPC calculations, as it will negate the need to duplicate data input in different software versions.

In order to generate an EPC you will have to have version’s VE 6.1.1 AND VE 6.2.0.3 installed;

If you are a VE-DSM 2010 user click here for download instructions…

If you are a VE-Ware (VE-SBEM) user click here for download instructions…

If you are a SketchUp user click here for download instructions…

Do you have any other burning questions for us for next months Questions and AEC? If so get in touch on Twitter, Facebook, or drop us an email hello at iesve.com.

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Tags:aec, Building, compliance, downloads, Environment, EPCs, sketchup, software, VE-Ware

Last month, we put out the call for questions for our new monthly series, Questions and AEC. And the responses came pouring in. So without further ado, here we go!

Twitter follower @xinyiwho asked:

@IESVE yes, can we trust the default SPF in Apache system?

Cormac Glynn, Project Consultant based in Dublin, answered:

I wouldn’t take the default value for SFP. The default specific fan power is 3 but the limiting value for Part L is 2. Therefore on a new building, if you took the default value you would fail. The reason for this is that the user is forced to consider the SFP and not just take the default value without realizing and achieve a pass. It is up to the user to decide on inputs to the model.

Does that answer your question, @xinyiwho?

And do you, dear reader, have a question that you need an answer to? Feel free to leave a comment below with your question. Or follow us on Twitter and send us a question using the hashtag is #IESVEQuestions. Or you can find us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

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Tags:aec, Apache, Building, consultants, Facebook, free, Twitter

A new monthly series featuring your questions and answers from IES’ worldwide team of consultants

The wonderful world of AEC. What’s not to love? But as the worlds of architecture, engineering and construction evolve, we are finding that there’s a whole list of questions out there that this community is seeking answers to. Especially in the green building, sustainable design and performance analysis arena…

Enter Questions and AEC, our new monthly series featuring YOUR questions!

Starting next month, our professionally-trained consultants will be online answering your questions. So here’s your chance to ask! Feel free to leave a comment below with a question. Or better yet, follow us on Twitter and send us a question that way. The hashtag is #IESVEQuestions. If you are on Facebook, we welcome questions on our page. And of course, we’ve got a LinkedIn Group as well. (Did we cover all the social networking bases?)

You could ask our opinions on LEED, Daylighting Simulation, Energy Modeling or even what services we offer that can add value to your organisation…so what are you waiting for? We’re ready for your questions…ask away!

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Tags:aec, consultants, IES, q&a, social media