Effect of skylight–roof ratio on warehouse building energy balance and thermal–visual comfort in hot-humid climate area

Abstract

Skylight–roofs installation on low-rise commercial/industrial building has the potentials to reduce energy consumption through the use of daylighting, yet it may also lead to an increase in room temperature and thermal discomfort for the occupants. The purpose of this numerical study is to evaluate the effect of the skylights ratios on the roof to the energy efficiency for artificial lighting, indoor daylight illuminance level and thermal discomfort in a warehousing building in the tropics. The simulations of low-rise warehouse building are performed using different simulation tools such as TRNSYS©, CONTAM©, and Velux daylight Visualizer©. Furthermore, the optimal skylight–roof ratio to this type of buildings will be figured out by considering the aspects of energy consumption and thermal comfort of occupants. The numerical simulation results show that the ratio of the area of the skylights designed between 2.5 and 5% of the whole roof can provide lighting energy efficiency to buildings in the tropics more than 50% during the day with a reasonable increase in the degree hour thermal discomfort.