Simulation and Field-Based Study of Thermal Performance of a Building - A Case Study

Abstract

Concerns about building thermal performance and energy consumption are fast growing as they account for roughly 40% of worldwide annual energy use. Building construction in Nepal is controlled by the National Building Codes (NBC), which focus solely on structural considerations and ignore thermal behaviour. As a result, housing tends to be too much warm and too cold during summer and winter respectively due to the lack of passive heating and cooling mechanisms considered during the construction phase. The Thakle Integrated Settle (TIS), built by the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) under the National Reconstruction Authority and supported by Oxfam Nepal, was the subject of this research. The building’s performance in the chosen location was analysed using a field and TRNSY simulation-based technique. Using meteorological data from Meteonorm software, the TRNSYS model was created to examine the performance in terms of internal air temperature and heating/cooling load of two buildings with different orientations, e.g., North-East (NE) and South-West (SW). According to simulation results, there is a heating demand that covers roughly 37% of the year, while cooling and comfort conditions were 32% and 31%, respectively. For NE and SW-facing buildings, heating demand was 4.10 MWh and 4.07 MWh, while cooling demand was 1.302 MWh and 1.309 MWh respectively.