Patent ID: 7899655
Filing Date: 2011-03-01
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of constructing a building based on predicting the transient hygrothermal behavior of an installed building component in the building during construction, wherein an interior environment of the building is not controlled by a system during construction and is thus materially affected by an environment exterior of the building, comprising: defining a performance characteristic of one building component that is affected by transient hygrothermal behavior of the one building component; defining a threshold value for the performance characteristic of the one building component at which a second building component may be installed without adversely affecting the building; defining exterior and interior climatic factors for creating exterior and interior climatic simulation ranges for a building wherein an interior environment of the building is materially affected by an environment exterior of the building, wherein the climatic factors comprise temperature factors and relative humidity factors, and the interior climatic factors are a function of the exterior climatic factors; defining one or more non-climatic factors affecting the defined performance characteristic of the one building component; inputting the defined performance characteristic, the exterior and interior climatic factors, and the one or more non-climatic factors into a commercially available transient hygrothermal simulation software program and creating a software model for performing simulations with the software program, which provides as an output predicted changes to the defined performance characteristic of the one building component, as a function of time, based on a selected initial as installed condition of the performance characteristic, selected exterior and interior climatic factors within the created exterior and interior climatic simulation ranges, and selected non-climatic factors of the one or more non-climatic factors; performing simulations with the software program, based on the created software model, to obtain output values, as a function of time, setting forth the changes to the performance characteristic that are based on: inputted initial as installed conditions of the performance characteristic, inputted exterior and the interior climatic factors within the exterior and the interior climatic ranges, and inputted non-climatic factors of the one or more non-climatic factors; and installing the second building component, after the predicted changing performance characteristic of the one building component reaches the threshold value of the performance characteristic, as provided at the output of the software program; wherein the temperature factors for defining the exterior temperature climatic factors of the exterior climatic range are defined by selecting a mean exterior temperature for an exterior climate, selecting an exterior temperature range for the exterior climate, and using a sine function to calculate exterior temperatures within the exterior temperature range over a 24 hour period; wherein the temperature factors for defining the interior temperature climatic factors of the interior climatic range are defined by using the selected mean exterior temperature and an interior temperature range for an interior climate that is between 0.5 and 0.9 of the exterior temperature range, and using a sine function to calculate interior temperatures within the interior temperature range over a 24 hour period; and wherein the relative humidity factors for defining the exterior and interior relative humidity factors of the exterior and interior climatic ranges are defined by selecting a mean relative humidity at a selected temperature, converting the mean relative humidity to an absolute humidity which is then held constant as the exterior and interior temperatures vary over the period of time in accordance with the sine functions, and calculating external and internal relative humidities over the period of time based on the absolute humidity and the external and the internal temperatures over the period of time using standard psychrometric calculations.