designPH is a plugin for SketchUp 3D and it enables preliminary assessment of heating demand as well as allows for easy input of geometrical data into PHPP. Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) is a tool to design Passive House buildings. PHPP provides an energy balance and calculates the annual energy demand based on building specific data inserted by the user. Data that can be exported from designPH to PHPP includes, but is not limited to treated floor area, opaque surfaces, windows, glazing, frames, shading, assemblies, thermal bridges, and others. designPH calculates shading parameters while analyzing a model which can then be exported into the Shading sheet in PHPP.
Shading analysis settings in designPH can be adjusted for shading mask resolution and the number of analysis points. These settings affect the heating demand and the amount of time it takes to run an analysis in designPH. Click this link to Passive House Accelerator to learn how the ‘ideal’ shading analysis settings were identified in designPH and how it saved time and impacted the analyses.