EPAR V2.0: AUTOMATED MONITORING AND VISUALIZATION OF POTENTIAL AREAS FOR BUILDING RETROFIT USING THERMAL CAMERAS AND COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) MODELS

This paper introduces a new method for identification of building energy performance problems. The presented method is based on automated analysis and visualization of deviations between actual and expected energy performance of the building using EPAR (Energy Performance Augmented Reality) models. For generating EPAR models, during building inspections, energy auditors collect a large number of digital and thermal imagery using a consumer-level single thermal camera that has a built-in digital lens. Based on a pipeline of image-based 3D reconstruction algorithms built on GPU and multi-core CPU architecture, 3D geometrical and thermal point cloud models of the building under inspection are automatically generated and integrated. Then, the resulting actual 3D spatio-thermal model and the expected energy performance model simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis are superimposed within an augmented reality environment. Based on the resulting EPAR models which jointly visualize the actual and expected energy performance of the building under inspection, two new algorithms are introduced for quick and reliable identification of potential performance problems: 1) 3D thermal mesh modeling using k-d trees and nearest neighbor searching to automate calculation of temperature deviations; and 2) automated visualization of performance deviations using a metaphor based on traffic light colors. The proposed EPAR v2.0 modeling method is validated on several interior locations of a residential building and an instructional facility. Our empirical observations show that the automated energy performance analysis using EPAR models enables performance deviations to be rapidly and accurately identified. The visualization of performance deviations in 3D enables auditors to easily identify potential building performance problems. Rather than manually analyzing thermal imagery, auditors can focus on other important tasks such as evaluating possible remedial alternatives.