Heating and cooling requirement of an office building and urban rooftop greenhouse

Abstract

Urban agriculture is an important step towards food security in cities where rooftop space is abundant, and underused. This research addresses the potential impact of adding a rooftop greenhouse to a six storey, detached office building on the total heating and cooling energy consumption of both structures operated year‐round, using IES‐VE simulation software. Several variables including the level of insulation between the office building and greenhouse, additional thermal mass, the greenhouse envelope and greenhouse internal loads were tested to observe trends that suggest an impact on the system’s conditioning energy due to the presence of the greenhouse. Overall, it was found to be most likely that the greatest energy savings for an integrated office building and rooftop greenhouse would be achieved with the highest resistance greenhouse envelope possible, which may be limited by the light needs of plants grown in the greenhouse, and incorporation of thermal mass in the greenhouse.