Overall Thermal Transfer Analysis of Glazing Facade Design for Passive Building Energy Efficiency

Abstract

The global warming incremental impacts such as temperature, precipitation, rise in sea level, and extreme weather events are indeed being observed globally. In recent decades, energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions have increased due to buildings being designed with active cooling and heating solutions, despite global attempts to reduce energy consumption. About 50 percent of all energy use is attributed to buildings. There has been a debate for Decades on building active and passive design, but very limited studies have been carried out to confirm the Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) during the operation phase of the building. This paper highlights the analysis of OTTV in the Passive Design Strategies using several conditions of glazing facades. The passive design of glazing facade strategies includes the variation in opaque wall Colour with different values of the coefficient of solar absorption, change in glazing type (U-Value and Shading Coefficient), and the decrease in the size of the openings. Building parameters were collected and OTTV was determined using the equation in Malaysian Standard MS 1525 for Energy Efficiency. The OTTV was then compared to the recommended value for Malaysia’s tropical climate. Results showed that different paint Colours improved OTTV by up to 23.05%, changing glazing type reduced OTTV from 76.93 W/m² (Base case) to 64.12 W/m² (Double Low-E, e2=.1 Tint green), and reducing glass area by 10% lowered OTTV to 62.24 W/m².Whereas, by combining the Type of Glazing and White facade Colour the OTTV was reduced to 39.68%. It is concluded that this OTTV analysis enhances building energy efficiency and reduces cooling loads.