Pushing simulation boundaries INSIDE models - join the debate at BSO

There are many in our community who are pushing simulation boundaries at the facades of buildings - great stuff. And what about doing this inside our buildings? The image is a (rather cluttered) wireframe rendering of an office from the interface in ESP-r. My earlier post in May showed the Radiance view of this.

The point of this post is that all the [stuff] in that earlier Radiance rendering is [real] on the thermal side, its part of the ESP-r data model. The desks, monitors, seat-backs and filing cabinets (and the paper in them) are fully participating in the dynamic energy balance, as well as the insolation distribution (and get rather hot when the sun patch includes them). Each has calculated view-factors and play a part in the position-specific comfort assessments - amazing how cooler glass and a hot desk fight to be the main source of discomfort!

The costs - well I had to say where the fourty-odd objects were located (that took some minutes) but along came all the attribution needed for full participation in thermal and visual assessments. It added a few seconds to the insolation calculations as well as the view-factor calculation and THREE more minutes to the annual thermal assessment. 

Worth doing? Lots of push-back from others on this. I believe that what is happening inside is worth exploring in our virtual worlds and that increases in resolution need not mess up our business models. No, it did not shift the numbers that accountants are fixated on by very much. Yet the increase in the number of virtual sensor points is an opportunity to enrich the design process (and something few of us are trained to cope with). I will be presenting on the Wednesday at BSO in Newcastle and look forward to opening up this debate.