Hilly, forrested context, what's the best way to include?
I'm wondering if anyone has a good workflow for incorporating steep nearby hills and trees in the model. I'm thinking to include approximate shading surfaces to simulate the fact that some surfaces won't receive much direct solar radiation at certain orientations, but curious if there is a more accurate way of coming up with such shading surfaces.
@edwinguerra are you asking about how to do this for a specific simulation tool? If so, please add a tag for the tool to your question so that others can provide better help.
yes, I think it is a general modeling question. I use IES-VE and OpenStudio, but in general, wondering how people would approach this. It feels very approximate to draw shading surfaces around your building. My assumption is that you can't bring in a complex terrain as a shading surface, but maybe someone has done it or has tips.
@edwinguerra you may also consider adjusting the Terrain field in the Building object (EnergyPlus).