INTEGRATION OF ENERGY SIMULATION AND VENTILATION DESIGN TOOLS VIA AN OBJECT-ORIENTED DATA MODEL

In future, the development of more energy efficient buildings will be achieved through better building design. To achieve these improvements in the building design process architects and engineers will require building design software tools that function as part of an Integrated Building Design System (IBDS). In contrast to the stand-alone design t ools that are presently employed in the design of buildings, the IBDS will (a) allow better and freer communications between the various des ign professionals from the earliest stages of building design; (b) ena ble greater use of current building performance evaluation tools and ( c) enable the development of more powerful building services design to ols. The task of developing such a Building Design System is been unde rtaken in the EU COMBINE project. This paper deals with current develo pments in the IBDS and, in particular, the integration and development of the HVAC design tools within the IBDS.