Ecotect: The Complete Environmental Design Tool

Ecotect: The Complete Environmental Design Tool is an application that allows analysis of building designs with the aim of creating more environmentally sustainable designs. The software performs four major analysis including thermal performance, energy analysis for whole buildings, cost and water usage evaluation, day lighting, solar radiation, as well as reflections and shadows.  The main interface is intuitive and utilizes a wizard-based approach that allows non-technical users to follow simple instructions.

With the Ecotect: The Complete Environmental Design Tool, users are able to calculate total carbon emissions  and energy use of a particular building model and is able to present acquired information on an hourly, daily, monthly, and annual basis. It can also calculate heating and cooling loads and can extrapolate depending on changes of different factors such as occupancy, infiltration, internal gains, and equipment. It has the capability to provide an estimate of water use both inside and outside the building, as well as incident solar radiation on windows and other exposed surfaces. Day lighting allows calculation of illuminance levels and daylight factors at the different areas of the model. Lastly, the Shadows and Reflections feature displays the sun’s path and position respective of the model at different dates, times, and locations.