Solar Fan + Solar Envelope with Ladybug

I received multiple emails about solar fan and solar envelope and if I want to add this components to Ladybug. Here is how you can calculate both of them with shading designer!

Attachments:

solarFan_solaeEnvelope.gh, 71 KB

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Theodoros Galanos on April 18, 2016 at 11:44pm

Hi Paul,

Just on the top of my mind (haven't tried it not currently on the pc), I guess you can specify an analysis period when you are generating the sun vectors for your study. Is that what you are looking for?

Kind regards,

Theodore.

Permalink Reply by Paul Wintour on May 31, 2016 at 10:22pm

Analysis period will just give you a range, say from 9-3pm. If I use this the solar fan will ensure light is ALWAYS accessing the surface. However, I can accept a min of 2hrs and I can't find a method to do this. Sunlight hour analysis can sort of do this but only in 2d, not 3d.

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on May 31, 2016 at 11:11pm

Sorry Paul, I don't think I understand what you are asking for. Do you mean you want a way to specify a specific time and month range for solar fan/ envelope?

Permalink Reply by Abraham Yezioro on June 1, 2016 at 12:01am

I believe something similar was discussed here.

-A.

Permalink Reply by Paul Wintour on June 1, 2016 at 12:03am

I'm not sure how to be any clearer...

What is the best way to get a solar fan for a specific analysis period for a min number of hours, for example 21 June 9am-3pm where each part of the surface receives at least 2hrs?

The 'Solar fan basic' component allows required hours (2 hrs), but only a monthly range (so I can't specify 21 June). Whereas, the 'solar fan' component I can specify the sun vectors for a specific analysis period (21 June) but not the min required hours.

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on June 1, 2016 at 8:36am

Thanks that's better. This can easily be resolved with the solar fan basic, I just need to modify it to take custom monthly ranges. I am at work now but I'll get to this when I have some free time.

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on June 1, 2016 at 7:37pm

Update: I think the attached file should do want you want. I have the script there set to June 21.

For the record, you should be able to do this with the other solarfan/solarenvelope tool: you just have to set the time range around the location's solar noon.

I threw this together quickly, so let me know if there's any glitches I overlooked.

Attachments:

solar_envelope_fan_monthrange_change.gh, 383 KB

Permalink Reply by Paul Wintour on June 20, 2016 at 12:16am

Hi Saeran

The component you sent through says ver 0.0.62 (Mar_17_2016). The github one is ver 0.0.62 (jun_07_2016). Is this correct? If so can you update the github component pls.

Also can the month range be modified to just take a standard Ladybug analysis period? The month range is a bit misleading because it is preset to the 21st of leach month.

I still don't think it is what i am after. The required hours should be 2. But the analysis period should be between 9am-3pm. At the moment, If I use 2 hrs for the required hours it will take it from 11am-1pm correct?

Permalink Reply by Paul Wintour on June 20, 2016 at 1:20am

I've also been testing the main SolarEnvelope component (so not the basic one). It appears it doesn't like mm. If I scale down the geometry, height and grid size to meters it works. But scaling all of them up doesn't. Is this a known issue?

Permalink Reply by Chris Mackey on June 25, 2016 at 5:51pm

Paul,

The two versions of the components are the same. The only reason why the jun_07_2016 version was added was that I noticed Saeran had put his new components into a different tab in the ladybug bar. Sorry if this created any confusion and, in the future, if you are ever curious about what change was made with each version of the component you can check the history of the source code on the github like so:

https://github.com/mostaphaRoudsari/ladybug/commits/master/src/Lady...

-Chris

Permalink Reply by Aris V on May 26, 2017 at 4:47am

Hi all,

Found this thread as I was working on a relevant gh definition (see attached gh file). I noticed some discrepancies between the geometry generated by the solar fan component and the geometry generated by extrusions of surface breps along solar vectors.

Below is the fan generated with brep extrusions. Fast solution but I often get a 'hedgehog' solar envelope in complex geometries than a smoother surface.

This is the solar fan component result for the same surface. Notice the space left:

If I reduce the height of the surface from 100 to, lets say 12m I get a lower fan boundary that is closer to the simple extrusion solution, but the generated fan geometry is thin and creates a tunnel instead of an opening when subtracted from other volumes (that was the reason for setting the height to 100m in the first place):