Abstract
Building energy assessment software/programs use various assumptions and types of thermal comfort models to forecast energy consumption. This paper compares the results of using two major thermal comfort models (adaptive thermal comfort and the predicted mean vote (PMV) adjusted by the expectancy factor) to examine their influence on the prediction of the energy consumption for several full-scale housing experimental modules constructed on the campus of the University of Newcastle, Australia. Four test modules integrating a variety of walling types (insulated cavity brick (InsCB), cavity brick (CB), insulated reverse brick veneer (InsRBV), and insulated brick veneer (InsBV)) were used for comparing the time necessary for cooling and heating to maintain internal thermal comfort for both models. This research paper exhibits the benefits of adopting the adaptive thermal model for building structures. It shows the effectiveness of this model in helping to reduce energy consumption, increasing the thermal comfort level for the buildings, and therefore reducing greenhouse emissions.
Highlights
The building sector is considered to be a large contributor to climate change, since building energy consumption is responsible for releasing approximately 33% of worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [1]
This research describes the advantages of using an adaptive thermal comfort model approach to assess the building’s thermal performance over the predicted mean vote (PMV) approach using four full-scale housing test modules located in Newcastle, Australia (cavity brick (CB), insulated cavity brick (InsCB), insulated brick veneer (InsBV), and insulated reverse brick veneer (InsRBV)) subjected to a range of seasonal conditions
This research indicates the importance of using an appropriate thermal comfort model to predict the energy consumption inside any envelope; the assessment of the thermal performance using adaptive thermal comfort model simplifies the analysis and saves more building operation energy
Summary
The building sector is considered to be a large contributor to climate change, since building energy consumption is responsible for releasing approximately 33% of worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [1]. Climate change effects need to be reduced by lowering greenhouse gas emissions through engineering solutions and designs to build low-energy, or in other words, energy-efficient buildings. Seven air-conditioned buildings in South Korea were used to examine the effect of occupants’ apparent control in their thermal environments and its effects on cooling energy consumption. The results indicate that increasing occupants’ apparent level of control over their thermal environment could reduce cooling energy consumption by 9% without sacrificing the thermal comfort of the occupants [5]
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