Abstract
Increasingly strict energy policies, rising energy prices, and a desire for a positive corporate image currently serve as incentives for multinational corporations to reduce their plants’ energy consumption. This paper quantitatively investigates and discusses the value of a traditional north-light roof using a complete building energy simulation and optimization framework. The findings indicate that the north-light system yields positive building energy performance for several climate zones, including: (i) Humid Subtropical; (ii) Semiarid Continental; (iii) Mediterranean; and (iv) Subtropical Highland. In the Subtropical Highland climate zone, for example, the building energy consumption of a north-light roof is up to 54% less than that of a conventional flat roof. Based on these positive findings, this paper further presents an optimization framework that alters the north-light roof shape to further improve its energy performance. To quantitatively guarantee a high probability of finding satisfactory designs while reducing the computational processing time, ordinal optimization is introduced into the scheme. The Subtropical Highland case study shows further energy building consumption reduction of 26% for an optimized north-light roof shape. The presented evaluation and optimization framework could be used in designing a plant with integrated north-lights roof that aim at energy efficiency while maintaining environmental occupant comfort levels.
Highlights
Socio-Industrial Context of Energy-Efficient Plant DesignBy 2050, 67% of the World’s entire population will live in cities
In all scenarios the industrial plants with a north-light roof configuration proved to yield superior lighting energy consumption compared to a building with a flat roof and windows in the east and west walls
The most pronounced difference is for Mexico City where a north-light roof configuration reduces the lighting energy consumption by 54% as compared to a flat roof with side windows
Summary
By 2050, 67% of the World’s entire population will live in cities. This number will be closer to 86%. To reduce production and transportation costs, multinationals create manufacturing plants in urban areas with a significant demand for their products [2]. Little research has been done on controlling and optimizing energy consumption in industrial plants beyond these soft measures. Most plants do not incorporate energy conservation and efficiency features into their designs, and have high operational energy consumption and are not designed to maintain a comfortable indoor climate for their labor force [5]. Since the lighting load in an industrial plant can account for up to 40% of all energy usage [6], the north-light roof, a traditional industrial roof system that brings diffuse lighting into the inner spaces of large buildings [7], might have a significant value in energy-efficient plant design [8,9]
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