Define area-based electrical loads in Revit

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Revit provides electrical engineering load estimating workflows that allow decision-making early in the design process.

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Capturing the area-based loads and other electrical requirements natively within Revit

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allows users to determine what the preliminary building load will be.

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There are two parts to the electrical analysis workflow.

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First, you define the electrical analytical loads,

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and then you define the electrical analytical system components.

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Open the plan you wish to base your Electrical Analysis on, and then open the System Browser.

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You can create area-based loads using a variety of reference data, such as an architectural RVT, DWG, or PDF.

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In the Properties palette, set Discipline to Electrical.

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Before you can define electrical area-based loads,

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you must first define a closed region using area-based load boundaries.

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From the Analyze tab, Electrical Analysis panel, select Area Based Load Boundary.

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On the Modify | Place Area Based Load Boundary tab,

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you can either use the Draw tools to sketch the area-based load boundary,

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or use the existing walls, lines, or edges to sketch the boundary.

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To use existing lines, from the Draw panel, select Pick Line.

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In the drawing area, pick the lines of the boundary.

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In this example, the plan includes curtain walls, which will need to be cleaned up.

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After picking the remainder of the building perimeter, back on the ribbon, Modify tab, Modify panel, select Trim/Extend to Corner.

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Select each of the elements that you want to keep until the perimeter of the border includes the curtain wall.

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Then, click Modify to complete the boundary.

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With the area-based load boundary in place, you are now ready to define the electrical area-based loads within it.

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Return to the Analyze tab on the ribbon, and, from the Electrical Analysis panel, select Area Based Load.

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This opens the Edit Area Based Load contextual tab.

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In the drawing, select the area you defined.

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To set the type, from the Properties palette, Electrical – Loads group, select Area Based Load Type.

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In the Electrical Analytical Load Type Settings dialog, you define the power requirements for the area-based load.

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If needed, you can create a new area-based load type, or you can duplicate, rename, or delete them.

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For this example, General Lighting is selected.

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Also, for each area-based load type name, you can define the power density,

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load classification, power factor, and apparent power density.

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In this case, use the default values.

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Once you have the appropriate type selected and defined, click OK.

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Back in the ribbon, select Finish Editing.

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Notice in the System Browser that the Area Based Load now displays.

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Select the load, and then rename it either here or in the Properties palette under Identity Data.

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In the Name field, enter a descriptive name, such as “LTG” for “lighting” in this example.

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Note that the name updates in the System Browser as well.

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Now that you have defined the area for the load, the next step is to define the analytical system components.