Impact of space layout on energy performance of office buildings coupling daylight with thermal simulation

Tiantian Du,Sabine Jansen,Andy Van Den Dobbelsteen,Michela Turrin,S.I Tanabe,I Nastase,H Zhang,M.C Gameiro Da Silva,L Mazzarela,C Inard,J Kurnitski,P Wargocki,G Cao

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/201911103077

Abstract

Space layout design is one of the most important phases in architectural design, and current studies have shown that it can affect building energy performance. However, its influence has not been quantified. This paper aims at investigating the impact of space layouts on building energy performance. We use the floor plan of an office building in the Netherlands as reference, and propose eleven space layouts based on the reference. Calculations are performed with the tools Honeybee and Ladybug in Grasshopper, which are developed based on Daysim and EnergyPlus, to simulate lighting, cooling and heating demand of these layouts. In addition, we couple daylight with thermal simulation, by importing the artificial lighting schedule calculated in Daysim to EnergyPlus. The result shows that the heating demand of the worst layout is 12% higher than the best layout, the cooling demand of the worst layout is 10% higher than the best layout, and the lighting demand of the worst layout is 65% higher than the best layout. The total final energy use of the worst layout is 19% higher than the best layout.

Highlights

Space layout design is one of the design tasks between ‘scheme design’ and ‘design development’ in the early design phase, and it is one of the most important tasks in architectural design [1]
As one important task in early design phase, space layout is expected to have a high potential of energy saving
This study aims at analysing the isolated impact of space layout on energy performance in office buildings

Summary

Introduction

Space layout design is one of the design tasks between ‘scheme design’ and ‘design development’ in the early design phase, and it is one of the most important tasks in architectural design [1]. Several studies have tried to evaluate the effects of space layout on energy performance [5,6,7] These studies show that space layout can impact energy performance significantly. Most of these studies mixed space layout with other parameters, for instance occupancy and operation strategy [5], window to wall ratio (WWR) [6], WWR and shading system [8]. This makes it difficult to quantify the impact of space layout based on current research. This study aims at analysing the isolated impact of space layout on energy performance in office buildings

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