You have been using HOT2000 to determine if house designs meet the R-2000 energy target and have always believed that it does a good job. One day you decide to model your own home and compare the results to the utility bills. You find that the predicted and measured energy usage differs by a significant amount! Does this sound familiar? What's going on? Why the difference? Does this mean the utility meters are no good (unlikely); that you don't know how to perform take-offs (shudder); or that HOT2000 is no good (shriek)? Don't panic.
The large number of innovative energy concepts which have been elaborated today to the stage of practicability open up new opportunities for contemporary architectural design. Energy concepts which pursue the aim of making optimum use of every available energy potential make the building itself an essential component of the basic energy logistics.