14. Retrofit Analysis

Autodesk Support

Oct 4, 2017


Reference Link:
Basic workflow to "Generate Insight" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VLQLbjJuOs&index=3&list=PLU-TfPimPH1RPWAQpXCfWUAe0Qc4Ij9dp

NOTE: Find the attached document for the detailed workflow steps with screenshots.

Video Description:

Retrofit analysis allows you to better understand the impacts of various factors on the retrofit of an existing building. To take best advantage of this feature, you will need the approximate annual electricity and annual natural gas utility costs for a 12-month period.

  1. Open your conceptual model: “Office_conceptm_18.rvt”
    • Note that your model of the building to be retrofitted does not need to be very detailed at this stage; however, if working in Revit, you can include any known information about the project, such as building use type, operating schedules, thermal properties of the walls, roof, or windows, etc. In many cases, these details are hard to determine, but even using Insight’s default settings will still provide you with valuable guidance when considering retrofit features for your project.
  2. Follow the same steps as the Basic Workflow by setting the location to “One Market st (San Francisco)”, creating the energy model, and generating the Insight.
  3. When the analysis is complete access the results of the simulation in the Insight interface from any of the 3 options described in the Basic Workflow.
  4. Move the analyzed model to a new Insight collection, called “Retrofit project”.
  5. It is recommended that you update the currency and utility rate, as needed, before performing the Retrofit Analysis. Do this by clicking on the settings icon in the right panel.
  6. Under ‘Currency & Utility Rates’ you can choose the currency from a drop-down menu. Click on ‘Utility rates’ to open the Utility rate dialog window. In this example, we will use the default currency and utility rates.
  7. Click on the model to open the menu of options and click on “Retrofit Analysis”.
  8. This will open the “Building Retrofit Analysis” dialog window.
    1. Enter the 31st of July 2016 as the end date of the annual utility billing period. Note that the end date must be at least six months prior to the current date (this is a requirement from the weather service that provides the actual measured weather data for the time period).
    2. Enter the Annual Cost for the electricity: $75,000 and the cost for natural gas: $18,000, for the billing period. And click ‘Generate’. It can take several minutes for the analysis to begin. 
  9. The Retrofit model will appear as a second model with a banner across the thumbnail view of the model indicating “Retrofit.”
  10. By default, the model will have the same name as the original analyzed model, so let’s give this model a unique name by clicking on the model menu and choosing Rename – call it “Retrofit Model”.
  11. Navigate to the Model Comparison’ icon on the right hand setting panel.
    • You’ll notice that the bar on the left, representing the retrofit building has a white tick on. This new benchmark value is called actual value; it represents the actual cost of the existing building based upon the annual utility building data you entered. As well as the energy consumption of the simulation using the actual weather data for the period you specified. You can mouse over the bar to see more details.           
  12. You are now ready to edit factors, create scenarios and apply them to the model by following the same process as described in the “Comparing model and Scenarios” video.  Comparing these scenarios results to the actual value benchmark under retrofit model will help you understand the impact of various retrofit measure on the building relative to the actual cost of the retrofit building.
    • Click on the original analyzed model to open the page with the factor widgets.
    • By scrolling down to the ‘Lighting’ widget, select “0.7 watts per square foot”. Change also the ‘Daylighting and Occupancy controls’ to “Daylighting and Occupancy controls”.
    • Notice how the energy cost mean dial changed from red to yellow and the energy cost mean has been reduced, indicating we are moving in the right direction toward a higher performing building.
    • Now navigate back to the top of the page and save this scenario. Rename it “Lighting measure”.
    • Note that for the purpose of this video, we previously created a separate scenario viz improved window glass of triple low-E for all four orientations. Lets compare our two scenarios to each other on this page by clicking on the ‘Scenario compare’ on the top right hand side. Notice how the lighting measure is more efficient than the window glass measure. Mouse over each bar to see details.
    • Let’s navigate back to the Insight page and apply the “lighting measure” scenario to only our original existing building model by clicking on the top right corner to choose it. We will leave the retrofit building model as it is so it can serve as our benchmark for comparison.
    • Click on the scenario drop down menu to choose the lighting measure scenario. By comparing this lighting measure applied to the existing model against the retrofit model we can quickly understand the benefits of updating the existing building with more efficient lighting. 
    • By hovering on each bar of the ‘Model Comparison’ you can compare this scenario results to the “actual value” benchmark on the retrofit model. This will help you understand the impacts of various retrofit measures on the building, relative to the actual cost of the retrofit itself.


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