OpenBuildings™ Designer Help

Building Properties

The Properties For: Building dialog opens when the Building Project Tree object´s pop-up menu is activated in the OpenBuildings Energy Simulator Project Tree and the Properties menu item is selected.

It contains building data properties used to set building information such as building type, the building overall dimensions and orientation, times of operation and occupancy, the inside design temperature, and economic factors.

Property heading Properties
Name Used to enter a name for the building.
High Rise When on, the building is considered to be a high rise building. When off, the building is considered to be a low rise building.

This, together with the Total height, Length/width ratio and the Azimuth angle of the longest wall, determine the wind pressure coefficients for the building, which are used for simulating air movement and calculations. 

Building Type Used to specify the building type. Within each building type, data for various room types is available, such as Cellular office, Circulation area, and Plant room. When new rooms are created, they will default to the selected building type’s available room types hen you create them.
Information (Address, Engineer, Client, Owner tabs) Contains controls to enter basic information about the building and the principles associated with it on four tabs.
  • Name — Used to enter the project building engineer’s, client’s or owner’s name.
  • Title — Used to enter the project building engineer’s, client’s or owner’s title.
  • E-mail address — Used to enter the project building engineer’s, client’s or owner’s e-mail address.
  • Address — Used to enter the street address for the project building (Address tab), the engineer, the client or the owner.
  • Zip code — Used to enter the zip or postal code for the project building (Address tab), the engineer, the client or the owner.
  • City — Used to enter the city the project building (Address tab), the engineer, the client or the owner is located in.
  • State — Used to enter the state the project building (Address tab), the engineer, the client or the owner is located in.
  • Country — Used to enter the country the project building (Address tab), the engineer, the client or the owner is located in.
  • Telephone — Used to enter the telephone number for the project building (Address tab), the engineer, the client or the owner.
Dimensions Contains controls used to define key dimensions that affect the thermal properties of the building.
  • Orientation — Used to set the orientation of the building. Orientation refers to solar orientation which is the siting of the building with respect to solar access. The orientation value entered here defines the angle between the building y-axis and true north in the clockwise direction. A rotation of 180 degrees flips the building around so that the north (or back) facade is facing south (or front).Orientation has an impact on heating, lighting and cooling costs. By maximizing southern exposure, the building design can take advantage of the sun for daylight and passive solar heating. This results in lower cooling costs by minimizing western exposures, where it's most difficult to provide shade from the sun.
  • Total height — Used to enter the building’s total height.
  • Length/width ratio — Used to set the building length/width ratio. Values greater than one indicate that a larger proportion of building surface area is facing due south.
  • Surroundings angle — Used to set the surroundings angle. The surroundings angle is an average angle of the building’s surroundings such as other buildings, terrain and city scape which obscures direct solar radiation at times when the sun is below the specified angle.
  • Window area — Used to set a default window glazing area for the building. The total area of glass is measured as a percentage of the total building surface area exposed to the sun. This enables a correction to be made in heat gain calculations.
Operations Contains controls used to set occupancy levels and cooling plant operation times.
  • Occupancy — Used to set the amount of time the building is occupied per week, and can be viewed in a number of time formats. The maximum value allowed is equivalent to seven days.
  • Cooling plant time ON — Used to set the time of day when the building’s cooling plant is turned on. The value can be viewed in a number of time formats. The maximum value allowed is equivalent to 23 hours (the hours of the day begin at zero hours).
  • Cooling plant time OFF — Used to set the time of day when the building’s cooling plant is turned off. The value can be viewed in a number of time formats. The maximum value allowed is equivalent to 23 hours (the hours of the day begin at zero hours).
Climate Contains controls used to define the building’s default climate data.
  • Inside Temperature — Defines the default inside temperature for the building as a whole, which is used for dew point calculations.
Economics The two panels under this heading contain building Economics data . The Economics data is used to calculate Building energy costs and emissions.