Home  5  Books  5  GBEzine  5  News  5  HelpDesk  5  Register  5  GreenBuilding.co.uk
Not signed in (Sign In)

Categories



Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.
Buy individually or both books together. Delivery is free!


powered by Surfing Waves




Vanilla 1.0.3 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Welcome to new Forum Visitors
 Join the forum now and benefit from discussions with thousands of other green building fans and discounts on Green Building Press publications: Apply now.




General: Therm vs Energy2D

Bottom of Page

1 to 5 of 5

  1.  
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2022
     
    Thinking again about whether I have time to dabble with/can afford simulation softwares like WUFI, Therm etc. WUFI remains v expensive, but Therm remains free.

    But I see some alternatives to Therm. In particular, free Energy2D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2kSU06829g . Has anyone tried it as alternative to Therm? Geometry creation and parameters input seems radically easier than v tricky old fashioned Therm and as the video shows, gives graphic illustration of moving heat distributions. Incorporates input such as solar.
  2.  
    Great find Tom!

    There's a caveat on their website which might put off those wanting to use it professionally:

    "Energy2D has been designed mostly for students to rapidly conduct computational experiments and learn science and engineering ideas and skills. We strive to improve the fidelity of the software, because we strongly believe that we can do better than just giving students toys...Over the years, some scientists and engineers have also found it useful in scientific research and engineering design. We cannot, however, guarantee its validity."

    Personally, I've been looking for something like this to just test ideas out (e.g. varying insulation thicknesses) and this looks like a good choice for the initial phases of iteration.

    Will take a proper look when I get a moment.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeNov 28th 2022 edited
     
    Thanks D_T - comparative is enough, for me at least. If you're doing full PH, then you need the absolute, credible numbers on thermal bridging, and at the other end of the current scale, if you're a housebuilder and just want to scrape thro Bldg Regs, then you need absolute numbers for that. Personally my work is mainly in the middle and is mainly not new houses but uprates, extensions etc to extg, for which just self-evidently far exceeding Bldg Regs is generally enough, letting me off doing big calcs to prove scraping thro, whether that's thro minimum Regs compliance, or thro PH standard.

    Front page of https://energy.concord.org/energy2d addresses this:

    "How well does it model reality?

    The conduction part of Energy2D is highly accurate, but the convection and radiation parts are not 100% accurate. Hence, in cases that involve convection and radiation, Energy2D results should be considered as qualitative. The pictures to the right show a comparison of the results of Energy2D simulations with images from infrared thermography for a simple model house. The thermal patterns predicted by Energy2D roughly match those from a thermal camera."

    Looking at the pics I'd say *very* roughly - prob not good enough, and I'd a thought thermography pics wd be about conduction? which is claimed to be 'highly accurate'. I'd think we could live without relying on the convection and radiation facilities?
  4.  
    Still haven't had a proper go, but from watching a quick tutorial I can't figure out:

    1) Whether it can import DWG/DXF (this would massively speed up drawing junctions)
    2) Whether it can factor in adiabatic boundaries - for something like a parapet junction, or even more so for a ground junction, you really want to be able to assign 'no heat flow' to certain areas.

    Neither are reasons not to use, but it's a shame as they seem to be something that even THERM can handle, albeit clunkily.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeNov 29th 2022
     
    I can live without DWG/DXF import, if it's anything like as time-wasting fussy as in Therm, but adiabatic essential, tho I can perhaps think of a workaround. Must go back for a proper go too!

1 to 5 of 5

  1.  
Add your comments

    Username Password
  • Format comments as
 
Back to Discussions Top of Page
   
The Ecobuilding Buzz
Site Map    |   Home    |   View Cart    |   Pressroom   |   Business   |   Links   
Logout    

© Green Building Press