Daylighting and Energy Simulation Workflow in Performance-based Building Simulation Tools

Accurate daylighting analysis for buildings has been developed along with energy simulation in performance based analysis tools, such as: DesignBuilder, DIVA, Honeybee, and Insight360. However, users in professional practice do not have a complete understanding of the capabilities and limitations of these tools. Although these programs use the same (or equivalent) simulation engines, they could generate different results due to having different simulation workflows, default inputs, and user-defined inputs through the Graphic User Interface (GUI). This paper explains the workflow in each simulation tool and describes their capabilities and limitations for daylighting and energy simulation.