Nate Soares

Green Primer

The use of Green Primer will be significantly simpler than the implementation. Ideally, there are two fairly similar use cases, as follows:

1. An architect uploads his building design (in google sketchup), a description of materials used, and some information regarding the location of the building, as well as the amount of money (in the form of a price range) that they are willing to spend on efficiency. Green Primer suggests the most cost effective way to upgrade the building design with the money available, giving justification for each suggestion.
2. An environment-minded person with an existing building uploads their building design and description, and Green Primer makes calculations similar to use case 1, but pertaining to upgrading an existing house rather than updating the design of an unbuilt house. To outside observers, both uses cases will be quite similar, though to Green Primer, the possibilities may vary wildly depending upon whether you are upgrading or updating your building.

Time allowing, Green Primer would be able to not only make suggestions, but show various graphs detailing the efficiency and cost effectiveness of various efficiency measures, allowing users to see the best options for various price ranges and to get a good feel for how different upgrades affect the building. However, in the short term, Green Primer will merely look to give suggestions.