Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a powerful and modern-age tool to simulate a building's behavior. ES-SO indicates here some packages that were specifically developed to show the influence of solar shading on the energy consumption. Several European countries worked on such packages. Reducing energy consumption also helps cut carbon emissions - and saves money.

Examples of software programs

• EDA-ESBO : Swedish early stage building design program with updating on windows and shading- see http://www.equa.se/en/ida-ice/what-is-new/highlights-in-4-7
• Energy savings from textile solar shading: French Textinergie software program- http://www.textinergie.org, more info download here
• Shade Specifier from BBSA in the UK- http://www.shadespecifier.org.uk, more info download here
• Progetto Involucro Trasparente from Italy(open source): more info and download see this link
• VELUX daylight tool- http://viz.velux.com/
  
• Duette Energiesparrechner in Germany, info and download program, see this link
• Light & Energy software tool focused on NZEB solutions with solar shading in Belgium, info see this link and download tool see http://tools.hde.nl/energytool2/tool.html
• More sophisticated tool to evaluate the energy efficiency of solar shading, http://www.ebd.lth.se/program/parasol
• For complete building simulation software, visit TRNSYS http://www.trnsys.com/ or ENERGY PLUS this link

General information

• US -Comparison study on the capabilities of building energy performance simulation programs, July 2005, download here
• ES-SO consensus on main input data for simulation programs for solar shading, download presentation and paper here