SBIR Phase II: Science-Based Networked Tools for Effective Design and Manufacture of Green Buildings and Green-Building Products

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project stems from the development and commercialization of a networked-based, easy-to-use, fast and accurate tool that will allow architects, consultants, manufacturers of green building products to quickly compare, manipulate and optimize lighting strategies, perform whole-building annual glare analysis and access recommended manufactured products as solutions, to help make informed decisions for integrated design. Daylighting is a crucial piece of the green building puzzle. With the appropriate tools, daylighting is arguably one of the most cost-effective methods of achieving high performance buildings (and happier, healthier occupants) throughout the design process. World-wide green building is expected to double every three years. The world's green building market is a trillion-dollar industry, moreover, the green building materials market is expected to reach $234 billion by 2019. By 2018, green construction will directly contribute 1.1 million jobs and $75.6 billion in wages by 2018 in the United States. Between 2015 and 2018, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings in the United States are estimated to have $1.2 billion in energy savings. Green buildings use fewer energy and water resources; save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce carbon emissions; and prioritize environmental and human health. This projects proposes to create robust software for measuring, analyzing, and for recommending solutions to glare in buildings. A novel dynamic tree parallelization architecture is proposed to manage complex, dynamic, and massive amounts of lighting calculations. This will include building the first commercial grade 3 and 5 phase lighting analysis engine. It will also produce a new generation artifact for creating and manipulating data for glare analysis. It will conclude with a validation study.