ASHRAE - American Society of Heating@ Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers@ Inc.
Scope
The objective of this paper is to illustrate a novel visualization methodology which can enhance the complementary relationship between computers and designers of high performance buildings. The proposed approach facilitates Multi-Criterion Decision Making via interactive visualization that allows dynamic adjustment of important variables@ while providing a visual range of allowable variation for the other design parameters. The parallel coordinates visualization technique is the culmination of a methodology which includes the application of Monte Carlo techniques to create a database of solutions using whole building energy simulations@ along with data mining methods to rank variable importance and reduce the multi-dimensionality of the design problem. The solution set are then fit by a second order regression model which can instantaneously provide bounds on specific regressor variables when other variables values are changed @ while satisfying pre-set energy performance limits. The methodology is illustrated using the USDOE medium office building configuration with 15 design variables.