Desenvolvimento e aplicação de um plug-in para o revit visando a verificação da viabilidade econômica de soluções para a economia de água em edificações residenciais

Abstract

Population growth, climate change, urbanization, and many other factors have resulted in a growing imbalance between the supply and demand of drinking water, both at a global scale, as well as in Brazil. Measures that increase the efficiency of use and allow using alternative sources, are very much needed. However, it is crucial that these solutions are seen as an investment and not as a cost, so that they are adopted at a large scale. This research aims at offering project designers a solution (made available as a Revit plug-in) to verify the economic viability of additional investments needed for the implementation of a project with rational water-saving solutions, instead of a one with traditional solutions. By doing this, this economic analysis is transferred to the design stage. The following possible solutions are considered: reuse of greywater, use of rainwater and use of water-saving devices. The viability is verified when the payback period of the investment is less than the system lifetime. The developed tool intends to determine this period by way of a mathematical model created based on the amounts of: typical flow rates for traditional and water-saving devices; frequencies of use; types of devices used; data about consumption outside the building; financial data; data to estimate the costs with operation and maintenance. In addition, the tool uses BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology. One condition for its use is that all the building projects are designed using a BIM software – more precisely, the software Autodesk Revit. The mathematical model was created based on a literature review about the topic, using comparisons with similar studies and proposing new approaches on specific issues, like the use of specific data of each project for a verification. This resulted in a plug-in for Revit. It is represented by an additional tab in the user interface, fully integrated in the software, and suitable for the Brazilian context, both in terms of the standards as well as in relation to the proceedings of budgeting (allowing the use of reference prices of tables from state institutions and the application of BDI into the budget).