Archetypes

An Archetype is a database relating the typology of buildings to historical data about their construction, energy systems, operation etc. The function of this database is to help the user to retrieve inputs for his analysis when data is scarce.

We can call it as default data for any type of simulation. Bear in mind that this data is highly dependent of local context. The City Energy Analyst V1.0b ships with data for the Swiss-European context as a default for up to 15 types of building typologies. Each building typology is classified according to a year of construction and/or renovation and a type of occupancy in the building.

Note: You are encouraged to build an Archetypes database for your local area. If you decide to use the existing please remember to acknowledge the authors:

• Fonseca, J. A., & Schlueter, A. (2015). Integrated model for characterization of spatiotemporal building energy consumption patterns in neighborhoods and city districts. Applied Energy, 142, 247–265.
• Thoma, E., J. A. Fonseca, and A. Schlueter. “Estimation of base-values for Grey Energy, Primary Energy, Global Warming Potential (GWP 100A) and Umweltbelastungspunkte (UBP 2006) for Swiss constructions from before 1920 until today.” Contemporary Urban Issues. 2014. 17. `