Impacts of Courtyard Envelope Design on Energy Performance in the Hot Summer–Cold Winter Region of China

Cheng He,Wei Tian,Zebiao Shao

doi:10.3390/buildings12020173

Cheng He, Wei Tian + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020173

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Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the effects of courtyard envelope design on the energy performance of office buildings in the hot summer–cold winter region of China. Two types of courtyard buildings were simulated with 200 energy models by changing the following variables: window–wall ratio (south, north, east, and west walls), window U-value, wall U-value, solar heat gain coefficient, and orientation. The treed Gaussian process (TGP) sensitivity analysis method was employed to quantify the contributions of parameters related to courtyard design that result in the changes of annual cooling, heating, lighting, and total energy consumption. The results show that the courtyard envelope design has a significant effect on the energy consumption in this case study. The most influential factor affecting annual cooling energy consumption and the annual total energy consumption is the orientation, which is responsible for 37% and 81%, respectively, in two layouts to annual cooling energy use. The corresponding proportion increased to 45% and 86% in terms of the total energy consumption. The most influential factor influencing annual heating energy use is the window U-value, which explained nearly 60% of the changes to the heating energy use. The effect of the solar heat gain coefficient in two kinds of layouts is as high as 82% and 79% for lighting energy use in this case study. Due to the different courtyard forms, the magnitude of the effect of the parameters on energy consumption and the main trend of the effect is slightly different.

Highlights

With the increase in environmental and energy problems, the world of sustainable development faces more and more challenges, in the building energy efficiency field
The results showed that the width/length ratio has a significant effect on energy demand and indicated that the influence of the proportion on energy performance in winter was more efficient than in summer in the hot–dry region of Turkey
The cooling, heating, lighting, and total energy have a periodic change when the orientation changes from 0◦ to 180◦, while the changes of other parameters only lead to a monotonic increase or decrease in energy use

Summary

Introduction

With the increase in environmental and energy problems, the world of sustainable development faces more and more challenges, in the building energy efficiency field. Courtyards as the typical and traditional building form have been distributed around many different places of the world [1]. The oldest Chinese courtyard building could be traced back to 5000 years ago [2]. According to the historic experiment, courtyard spaces are often regarded as microclimate modifiers, which can improve the thermal comfort of both outdoor and indoor spaces. As passive design strategies in houses or public buildings [3], courtyards can mitigate the urban heat island effects and reduce the energy demand as well as increase the natural light and ventilation [4]. Courtyards have some social and cultural benefits due to the safe and private spaces to activate lots of activities such as gardening, conversing, working, and playing

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