Development and Features of the Green Roof Energy Calculator (GREC)

Abstract

A data base-driven web tool has been developed from detailed energy modeling simulations to enable green roof practitioners to explore the energy, water, and urban climate implications of design decisions. Provided with basic characteristics of a green roof project, the Green Roof Energy Calculator performs a multi-layered interpolation within a database of 8000 simulations to estimate whole building energy use, storm water runoff, and sensible and latent heat exchange with the urban atmosphere. Output from each user query produces information for the specified green roof system, but also includes information for alternatives of both white and dark membrane roofs.