Study on a full-year improvement of indoor thermal comfort by different vertical greening patterns

Abstract

Vertical greening is an influential element in built environment that affects the indoor thermal environment and the residents’ thermal perception. This research aims to identify the optimum vertical greening patterns for indoor thermal comfort in cold winter and hot summer areas. The general parameters of greening walls were extracted according to the constituent materials, and Envi-met model was employed to calculate the indoor thermal indexes based on the meteorological data acquired from the national meteorological station. PET isotherm was used to reveal the distribution of a year-round thermal perception. The analytical result showed that modular green walls have the highest proportion of livable PET, annually. Livable PET includes “comfortable”, “slightly cold” and “slightly hot” thermal perceptions. Linear green walls have the second highest proportion of livable PET, even though modular green walls and linear green walls extended “very cold” thermal perceptions in winter. Considering the annual PET distribution, the modular green walls and linear green walls are suitable for hot climatic regions, while the green facades pattern is preferable in the cold climate areas.