Exploration of heuristic rules for green home design decision support system

Through a serious of energy simulation sessions, it is possible to compare energy performance pertaining to the different internal layouts applicable to typical apartment housing units to identify generalized rules for residential building design strategies and generating energy-saving alternatives. We explored the impact of different attributes of the internal walls such as length, material, geometry, and location on the heating load profiles by using multiple sensitivity analyses based on the Design Builder simulation tool. The results are summarized into a set of heuristic rules for evaluating apartment unit´s internal layout design alternatives to maximize their energy performance.