Many factors affect energy demand, and knowing their impact is very important for being able to design a low-energy building. In this group of factors, there are those that cannot be changed and improved after the building is constructed, so taking them into account when choosing a project is important for energy savings. This group includes geometric parameters. We propose a geometric method of assessing the energy demand of a single-family house. The idea is to predict the level of energy demand by calculating the values of simple geometric parameters in the first stage of design. Based on the analysis of 30 realistically designed single-family houses, we show that the geometric indicators expressed by the base area Af, and perimeter P at a fixed building wall height h, perfectly characterize the amount of energy, both usable and final. Moreover, we show linear relationships between the nominated A/V and non-nominated EWA/FA, RCcd compactness ratios. This relationship allows one indicator to be measured with another. As a result, we show how a designer can use a simple calculated index RCcd to find out the level of energy demand.
The paper shows the usefulness of the roof geometry in determining of building outline. It was pointed out how analysis of the roof skeleton shape avoids many design errors. Omitting the criterion for the shape of the roof skeleton in the case of multi-criteria optimization can pose a lot of difficulties when designing a building. The problem is discussed in the case study.
In this paper, we present a new approach for the analysis of the dependence of construction costs on the geometric shape of a building. Instead of difficult or even impossible-to-establish uniform prices and costs, we propose a cost analysis concerning the amount of materials needed for construction. We show that the basic parameters are the base area of the building (plan), assumed in the study as the building area, and the area of the external walls of the building. The amount of consumption of most materials is proportional to the base area and the area of the external walls. The materials required for construction consume large amounts of energy during their manufacture. Therefore, shape optimization is not only economically significant for the investor but is also important in terms of the energy consumption, i.e., embodied energy. We propose a set of indicators to help a designer optimize the shape of the building at the initial design stage.
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