Abstract
Atria are added to buildings for their aesthetical, environmental, and economic benefits; the appropriate atrium design can enhance an atrium’s thermal performance and the adjacent spaces’ temperatures. However, inappropriate design decisions cause thermal discomfort and consequently, higher energy consumption. Since the Mediterranean climate has diverse climatic conditions around the year, a central atrium with a top-lit skylight is recommended, but during the summer period it can cause overheating, and the insertion of shading elements shrinks the lighting performance: thus, the atrium skylight design is supposed to improve thermal comfort without affecting the lighting level. This study investigated the improvement of thermal performance in the atrium building by the implementation of a double-skin skylight (DSS) to enhance the atrium thermal performance without shading. The research conducted computer simulations with Environmental Design Solutions (EDSL) Tas software sequentially. The study prepared various design strategies, and different proposals were tested and compared in terms of indoor temperatures, with reference to American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE-55). The implementation of DSS achieved an average of 77% comfort in working hours around the year with different opening percentages according to the outdoor conditions. Moreover, results show that changing the DSS glazing materials did not affect the thermal performance of the atrium.
Highlights
Statistics show that buildings consume more than one-third of global energy
The designed double-skin skylight (DSS) was investigated in two steps; the first part included testing the DSS cavity fenestration according to the seasonal design strategy, which uses different opening percentages according to the outdoor climatic conditions
Results show that changing the DSS glazing materials did not affect the comfortable working hours (WH) during January for the 80% acceptability ranges, whereas using both clear glass layers increased the comfortable WH by 1% from the existing building in only some spaces
Summary
Statistics show that buildings consume more than one-third of global energy. With the recent worldwide awareness of calls for sustainability and energy-efficiency, architects and designers have tended to employ building designs with passive design strategies to achieve the best indoor environments with the minimum energy consumption; energy can be saved by the employment of intelligent automation systems which adjust the indoor conditions to achieve user satisfaction and lower energy consumption simultaneously [1,2,3], and these automated systems should be addressed and tested comprehensively in the early design stages [4]. Thermal comfort has been considered the most important factor directly affecting building users’ performance, and explicit performance regression can be noticed due to thermal discomfort [5,6]. Indoor environmental conditions (thermal, visual, acoustic, and air-quality) have been studied individually; thermal perception might be strongly affected by other components ( light color, as changing the light properties can improve the thermal sensation of users). For institutional buildings in general and libraries in particular, a comfortable indoor environment is one of the main criteria for a successful design [9]
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