“We need to be as expert at building energy as we are in other areas of design and not let it be an after thought. And the good news is that we have the digital tools to do that as an integrated part of the design process.”
Tom Bassett-Dilley, TBD Architects
In this video by Passive House Chicago Founder and Board Member Tom Bassett-Dilley, Tom talks about energy modeling using WUFi-Passive and how modeling can help to understand the impacts of building decisions such as orientation, shading, windows, r-values, airtightness levels, and appliance efficiencies. He thinks of it as a tool “to tune the building to the environment and to test the economics of solutions.”
And modeling is not only good for new construction but also for retrofits which Tom belies are really the more urgent need if we’re going to make an impact on climate change. Retrofits tend to be more complex and WUFI-Passive modeling can help clients visualize the value of retrofit components.
In summary, WUFI-Passive is a powerful tool that can be used to help architects confidently guide their clients to low and zero energy solutions and the architects that can do this are the ones that are going to be the most needed in the coming years.