2. Energy Data Visualization

Energy Data Analysis Tools

The outputs of building energy simulation are notoriously tedious to summarise, interpret and communicate. Some of the existing tools provide different functions for post-processing energy data with different level of efficiencies.

An alternative approach is to “divide and conquer”, i.e. let each tool do what it does best, and seek separate tools to analyze the raw data which might be more efficient and flexible.

Effective approach for energy data analysis and communication may have the following desirable capacities:

• Import and export raw data in large file size quickly;

• Accommodate multiple input file formats;

• Automate key data pre-processing procedures;

• Allow efficient data aggregation in different temporal scales, ranging from annual to hourly, and various spatial scales, ranging from the entire building as a whole down to selected floors, zone groups, zones or even surfaces;

• Allow customizable compilation of performance indicators;

• provide flexible options for interactive data querying;

• offer diverse templates for data visualisation for effective communication;

• facilitate effective comparative study across different cases;

• Lightweight in file size for ease of transportation of the workflow;

• Cross-platform support;

• Sharing online the analysis with the community and the general public;

• Less programming required;

• Preferably open source, or have free educational license;

• Allow both online/offline use and server/local data storage;

• ...

A potential candidate of the alternative approach which has quite a few of these capacities is the Tableau software as introduced in this tutorial.

(to be continued ...)