Abstract
A growing attention has been paid to building envelope features for achieving lower energy consumption especially in large office buildings and hot climate zones, since these features and their variables are affecting energy consumption widely and with different sensitivity. Therefore, this paper conducts simulation-based comparative analyses between main envelope features with their internal variables; the selected features for this study are building geometry ratios, orientations and common envelope finishing materials (FMs). Two applications have been conducted (comparing cases with either a same or different building volumes), and more than 500 cases/simulations have been conducted and studied in total. Accordingly, sensitive features and variables have been determined to enrich design decisions for different cases, along with best variables' integrations that achieve best energy consumption through the proposed applications and cases. Cubic office buildings in Egypt have been used to demonstrate the study, and energy simulations have been achieved using eQuest (DOE-2). Results show that lower height with wider roof achieves best energy consumption if building volume is fixed via comparisons, and vice versa. Gravel and galvanized steel represent best studied roof and walls' FMs, while roofing shingles is the worst one. If building volume is varied via comparisons, horizontal dimensions are the most sensitive feature that affects energy consumption per m2, while FMs and height represent lowest sensitivity among studied features. Ranking of cases, features, variables along with sensitive features in details have been analyzed and discussed through the paper.
Highlights
Building envelope is one of the main domains that can be utilized towards developing net zero energy buildings, especially in hot climate zones
Changing the geometry ratios of a cubic building from 1:1:1.5 to 1.75: 1.75: 0.5 with a same volume (e.g., 96000 m3) can reduce the energy consumption from 158.5 to 149.6 kWh/(m2.year) in a hot climate zone (2A) [1], predicted using eQuest simulation tool [1], and more energy savings per m2 can be reached if the building volume are varied via comparisons
This paper presents a simulation-based comparative analyses on building envelope features and their variables from energy consumption perspective
Summary
Building envelope is one of the main domains that can be utilized towards developing net zero energy buildings, especially in hot climate zones. A lot of envelope features can be tracked to reduce energy consumption such as building geometry ratios and others. Changing the geometry ratios of a cubic building (as a feature) from 1:1:1.5 (width: length: height) to 1.75: 1.75: 0.5 with a same volume (e.g., 96000 m3) can reduce the energy consumption from 158.5 to 149.6 kWh/(m2.year) in a hot climate zone (2A) [1], predicted using eQuest simulation tool [1], and more energy savings per m2 can be reached if the building volume are varied via comparisons. AMR MAMDOH ALI YOUSSEF features and their variables along with determining sensitive features and variables that achieves best energy consumption; building geometry ratios, orientations and Finishing materials (FMs) (either covering the roof and/or walls) are the main features to be studied in this paper. Cairo in Egypt, as a hot climate zone, has been used to demonstrate the study outcomes
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