Modelling of active building envelopes for cost-effective evaluation

Active building envelopes have provided cost reductions of 40% compared to a separate installation of solar collectors on a building envelope. However, solar building envelopes are more complex than conventional building envelopes due to their additional solar function. This paper first explains this complexity before describing methods to handle this complexity. The focus of the simulation models is good accuracy at low costs. From the development of innovative solar envelopes up to the general planning and construction of solar architecture, this paper provides seven recommendations to optimize the cost-benefit ratio of simulations of active building envelopes.