Highlights IDA ICE 5.2

Story Navigation

Purpose: Switch between building stories with a single click on the arrow buttons and identify the current story by its IFC name.

Ease of use: Makes floor-by-floor navigation faster and keeps imported BIM models easier to follow.

Example: Move directly between stories of a multi-story IFC model while retaining the original floor names.

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Simulation & Analysis

Sunlight Exposure EN 17037

Purpose: Evaluate the duration of direct sunlight exposure on individual windows and verify sunlight requirements according to EN 17037.

Ease of use: Direct sunlight presence is available as a simulation output from “Solar radiation through windows” and can be converted into a duration plot, making it easy to assess and compare sunlight exposure across windows.

Local Thermal Discomfort ISO 7730

Purpose: Evaluate local thermal discomfort with the stratified zone model using ISO 7730 criteria, including draught, floor temperature, vertical air temperature difference and radiant temperature asymmetry.

Ease of use: Provides percentage dissatisfied (PD) outputs directly from spatially resolved air and radiant conditions, enabling detailed local comfort assessment without additional calculations. In addition, the model computes long-wave radiative exchange using detailed view factor calculations between room surfaces and occupants, allowing radiant temperature asymmetry to be evaluated correctly even for complex room geometries.

Example: Assess local discomfort in an office during a winter design day, including draught from supply air and discomfort caused by cold windows or surfaces.

 

 

Controllable Shading in Daylight Simulation

Purpose: Include controllable shading in climate-based daylight simulations using the shading operation determined by the preceding thermal simulation, reflecting the actual shading operation.

Ease of use: Daylight metrics automatically account for actual shading operation, providing more realistic results and supporting daylight assessments required by building certification schemes.

Example: Evaluate annual daylight performance in an office where solar shading responds dynamically to changing indoor and outdoor conditions.

 

Smoothing by Simulation Type

Purpose: Control schedule smoothing separately for different simulation types, allowing the same model configuration to be used for different simulation purposes.

Ease of use: Apply smoothing where it improves result interpretation, while keeping it disabled for analyses where unsmoothed inputs are preferred.

Example: Use smoothing for annual energy simulations while keeping continuously varying occupancy schedules unchanged for heating load calculations.

 

Improved ISO 13370 Ground Model

Purpose: Improve ground heat transfer calculations according to ISO 13370 by distinguishing between zones at the building perimeter and zones within the building footprint.

Ease of use: Ground temperatures are automatically calculated according to zone position, providing a more accurate representation of ground heat losses without additional model setup.

Example: Simulate a large building where perimeter rooms experience different ground heat transfer conditions than rooms located in the center.

 

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  HVAC Systems & Controls

Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) beta

Purpose: Model façade-integrated PV systems and their interaction with the building envelope, including electricity generation and thermal processes.

Ease of use: Assign BIPV directly to façade at the surfaces table using only PV efficiency and area coverage. Electrical generation and thermal behaviour are calculated automatically and integrated into the building energy balance outputs.

Example: Evaluate the energy performance of an office building with BIPV façades, including electricity production and its impact on façade temperatures and different heat transfer processes, such as radiative exchange with the sky and ground, and convective heat transfer in the ventilated air gap behind the panel.

 

New Control Components

Purpose: Extend custom control strategies with three new components: Count switch counting (off → on), Delay and Hold signal.

Ease of use: Makes common control logic easier to build directly in IDA ICE, reducing the need for more complex combinations of existing controller components.

Example: Keep a window open for a minimum period after opening, even if the triggering control signal changes.

 

WISE Water Cooling and Heating System Control

Purpose: Coordinate heating and cooling supply temperatures based on demand from multiple zones. The new WISE distribution system by Swegon dynamically adjusts AHU supply temperature according to zone control signals, valve positions and defined system limits.

Ease of use: Dedicated zone and AHU controllers make coordinated system control available at the Standard level. Advanced control strategies can be implemented without building custom control logic, while maintaining stable operation within configurable temperature limits.

Example: Adjust AHU supply temperature dynamically according to heating and cooling demand across multiple rooms, avoiding unnecessary temperature offsets while responding to changing zone conditions.

 

Extended Zone Sensor

Purpose: Extend the Zone Sensor with access to additional control and operational signals, including setpoints, in-use status, time before use and VAV damper position. Sensor values can also be combined using Min, Max, Sum and several averaging methods.

Ease of use: More complex control strategies can now be built directly at the Standard level, with flexible aggregation of signals across multiple zones and less need to retrieve variables through Advanced-level modelling.

Example: Use the average, minimum or maximum conditions across several zones as an input for coordinated system control.

 

New, Extended Humidity Control AHU Models

Purpose: Introduce extended humidity control for air handling units, with humidification, dehumidification and cooling logic explicitly represented in the controller instead of a black-box implementation.

Ease of use: Makes humidity control strategies easier to understand, troubleshoot and debug by providing direct access to the internal control logic. Added Annotations provide additional control descriptions.

Example: Configure AHUs with evaporative humidification and cooling-based dehumidification, or steam humidification and cooling-based dehumidification.

 Evaporative AHU and controls:

Steam humidifier AHU and controls: 

 

Predefined Air Terminal Types

Purpose: Simplify the definition of air terminal throw characteristics for simulations with the stratified zone model by automatically assigning the throw coefficient (k-value) based on the selected terminal type.

Ease of use: Removes the need to manually define or estimate k-values, making it faster and easier to set up realistic air distribution characteristics without looking up manufacturer data.

Example: Select from predefined circular terminals; rectangular diffusers; four-way diffusers and radial diffusers – with the appropriate k-value assigned automatically.