scholarly journals Influence of the Passive Design of a Building Facade on the Indoor Thermal Comfort of Residential Buildings

2021 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 03006
Author(s):  
Pengfei Zhou ◽  
Chi Zhang ◽  
Jiang Wang

Building facades have evident effects on indoor thermal comfort. Hence, on the basis of a multifunctional residential building in Sydney, Australia, this research uses DesignBuilder software to optimize passive system design on building facades. This research also analyses the influences of changing window glazing type, adding additional shading devices and changing the material of the exterior wall on indoor thermal comfort. Results show that the number of uncomfortable hours can be reduced by 446, 186 and 874 hours by using a double-layer Low-E glass, adding extra shading device and adopting an external wall material with low thermal conductivity, respectively. When the three aforementioned passive design strategies are combined, indoor thermal environment discomfort time can be reduced by 24%. Therefore, the indoor thermal comfort of a building can be considerably improved through effective passive designs of the building facade.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-170
Author(s):  
Rajan KC ◽  
Hom Bahadur Rijal ◽  
Masanori Shukuya ◽  
Kazui Yoshida

The energy use in residential dwellings has been increasing due to increasing use of modern electric appliances to make the lifestyle easier, entertaining and better. One of the major purposes of indoor energy use is for improving indoor thermal environment for adjusting thermal comfort. Along with the use of passive means like the use of mechanical devices, the occupants in any dwellings use active means such as the use of natural ventilation, window opening, and clothing adjustment. In fact, the use of active means when the outdoor environment is good enough might be more suitable to improve indoor thermal environment than the use of mechanical air conditioning units, which necessarily require electricity. Therefore, the people in developing countries like Nepal need to understand to what extent the occupants can use active means to manage their own indoor thermal comfort. The use of active means during good outdoor environment might be an effective way to manage increasing energy demand in the future. We have made a field survey on the occupants’ adaptive behaviors for thermal comfort in a Japanese condominium equipped with Home Energy Management System (HEMS). Online questionnaire survey was conducted in a condominium with 356 families from November 2015 to October 2016 to understand the occupants’ behaviors. The number of 17036 votes from 39 families was collected. The indoor air temperature, relative humidity and illuminance were measured at the interval of 2-10 minutes to know indoor thermal environmental conditions. The occupants were found using different active behaviors for thermal comfort adjustments even in rather harsh summer and winter. Around 80% of the occupants surveyed opened windows when the outdoor air temperature was 30⁰C in free running (FR) mode and the clothing insulation was 0.93 clo when the outdoor air temperature was 0⁰C. The result showed that the use of mechanical heating and cooling was not necessarily the first priority to improve indoor thermal environment. Our result along with other results in residential buildings showed that the adaptive behaviors of the occupants are one of the primary ways to adjust indoor thermal comfort. This fact is important in enhancing the energy saving building design.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baizhan Li ◽  
Wei Yu ◽  
Meng Liu ◽  
Nan Li

Yangtze River Valley is situated within the Hot Summer and Cold Winter zone, and residents in this region of China would require HVAC system to alleviate thermal comfort conditions, although this is tempered by the Design Code (DBJ50-071-2007) for energy efficiency. A 1-year survey of about 200 residential homes was carried out in eight cities covering the breadth of the region. The acceptable temperature range for the residents in this area was 16.3—28.1°C and the thermal neutral temperature was found to be 27.6°C in summers and 17.5°C in winters. People in different area can vary in their adaptability and comfortableness. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the national comfort parameter introduced in the Code for Design of Heating and Ventilation and Air Conditioning (GB50019-2003). The results found that if air-conditioning system was set to 27.5°C instead of 26°C as required by GBJ19-87: Design Standard of Heating and Ventilation and Air Conditioning, a 16.5% saving of energy consumption could be achieved. The findings demonstrated the role of natural ventilation in the expansion of the thermal comfort zone for the residents, especially during the summer seasons. A climatic adaptability model has been established by this study to contribute to the passive climatic design strategies for a better economic and energy efficiency of buildings.


2012 ◽  
Vol 512-515 ◽  
pp. 2882-2886
Author(s):  
Shi Jie Wu ◽  
Zeng Feng Yan

Natural ventilation is an important role to improve the residential building indoor thermal environment in summer. This paper use Energy Plus to simulate indoor thermal environment and use CFD to simulate indoor air flow for Xi’an residential building, analysis the influence that different ventilation mode for indoor thermal environment factors. Then with the simulated result of PMV-PPD value to estimate indoor thermal comfort. Proved night ventilation is necessary in residential building in Xi’an and effectiveness to improve indoor thermal comfort.


2011 ◽  
Vol 374-377 ◽  
pp. 24-30
Author(s):  
En Li ◽  
Jia Ping Liu

During a time when environmental issues are one of the biggest problems in the world, the development and growth of developing cities can no longer be discounted. As a typical developing city, the building energy consumption of Lhasa had a large scale increase with the living standard enhancement of people. Through the local measurements, the information as indoor air temperature, the evaluation of the thermal environment and so on was collected. The result shows the existed residential buildings used the direct gain system and the attached solar space system spontaneously. However, the indoor thermal environment still needs to be improved. Considered that Lhasa was classified into central heating area, it will face the problem of huge increasing of the heating energy. The basic models of direct solar gain system were established for studying the affecting rules of passive design elements. The last result gives suggestion for the local residential building design.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nwakaego Chikaodinaka Onyenokporo ◽  
Ekele Thompson Ochedi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of affordable retrofit packages that can be applied to existing residential buildings in hot-humid regions to improve occupants’ thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption. Design/methodology/approach A critical review of relevant literature to identify passive design strategies for improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption in hot-humid climates with focus on the building envelope was conducted in addition to a simulation study of an existing building typology in study area. Findings There is enormous potential to reduce energy costs and improve thermal comfort through building retrofit packages which is a recent concept in developing countries, such as Nigeria. Analysing the results of the retrofit interventions using building energy simulation helped in developing affordable retrofit packages which had optimum effect in improving indoor comfort temperature to the neutral temperature specified for hot humid Nigeria and further down to 3°C less than that of the reference building used. The use of passive design strategies to retrofit the building might help homeowners reduce their annual energy consumption by up to 46.3 per cent just by improving the indoor thermal comfort. Originality/value In addition to improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption, this research identified affordable retrofit packages and considered its cost implications especially to low-income earners who form a larger population of Lagos, Nigeria, as this was not considered by many previous researchers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 211-221
Author(s):  
Katei Yassa ◽  
Gehan Nagy

Since the 20th century, the temperature has risen, worldwide, due to climate change causing global warming. Such phenomena have resulted in thermal dissatisfaction within various buildings indoor spaces including Egyptian Coptic Orthodox churches. Heritage churches designs have always implemented passive strategies to provide indoor thermal comfort. However, modern churches design tend to use active strategies to provide indoor thermal satisfaction instead of referring to the use of passive designs. Accordingly, the main purpose of this research is to identify a set of guidelines to enhance indoor thermal comfort in modern Coptic Orthodox churches using passive design strategies. The research has adapted a mixed method approach where an in-depth literature review resulting a qualitative summary of passive techniques used in heritage Coptic churches, then followed by a comparative analysis between two Egyptian case studies; the first is a heritage church (St. Barbarah church) and the other is modern which is (Virgin Mary church) based on the deducted passive strategies from the literature. Moreover, an applicable simulation for varying the methodology, using Design Builder, where the modern church will be simulated and tested for thermal comfort before and after modifying it using the passive strategies deducted from the literature. The research’s main findings were the list of passive techniques that could be used to enhance the indoor thermal comfort, while the simulation experimental results where related to a typical summer week, showing that for the average air temperature and the average solar gains, the triple glazing was the most effective in causing indoor thermal comfort. But, for the average relative humidity and average of total fresh air, insulation has shown to be most effective in providing enhanced indoor thermal comfort. To conclude, a set of guidelines has been deduced from the methods adapted in the research showing the most suitable and applicable passive design strategies that could be used inside Coptic Orthodox churches to enhance indoor thermal comfort.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3359
Author(s):  
Hanan S. S. Ibrahim ◽  
Ahmed Z. Khan ◽  
Waqas Ahmed Mahar ◽  
Shady Attia ◽  
Yehya Serag

Retrofitting heritage buildings for energy efficiency is not always easy where cultural values are highly concerned, which requires an integrated approach. This paper aims to assess the potential of applying passive retrofitting scenarios to enhance indoor thermal comfort of heritage buildings in North Africa, as a hot climate, a little attention has been paid to retrofit built heritage in that climate. A mixed-mode ventilation residential building in Cairo, Egypt, was selected as a case study. The study combines field measurements and observations with energy simulations. A simulation model was created and calibrated on the basis of monitored data in the reference building, and the thermal comfort range was evaluated. Sets of passive retrofitting scenarios were proposed. The results (based on the ASHRAE-55-2020 adaptive comfort model at 90% acceptability limits) showed that the annual thermal comfort in the reference building is very low, i.e., 31.4%. The application of hybrid passive retrofitting scenarios significantly impacts indoor thermal comfort in the reference building, where annual comfort hours of up to 66% can be achieved. The originality of this work lies in identifying the most effective energy measures to improve indoor thermal comfort that are optimal from a conservation point of view. The findings contribute to set a comprehensive retrofitting tool that avoids potential risks for the conservation of residential heritage buildings in hot climates.


2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 4461-4465
Author(s):  
Li Li

The good and comfortable environment is beneficial to the health, and can improve working efficiency, make people imbued with more creativity. This means strengthening the competitiveness, increase economic efficiency. So, creating the good building environment not merely has a meaning on technology, and has social effect and economic meaning. In order to understand the situation of indoor thermal environment of the seaside residential building generally, a field measurement on the condition of summer was made in Xiamen from the last ten days of July to the first ten day of Aug, 2005, 2006 and 2008. Test the thermal environment and investigate the thermal comfort in residential buildings of natural ventilation condition, analyze the main influence factors of indoor thermal environment, and evaluate indoor thermal comfort with effective temperature (ET). The curves of indoor air temperature and relative humidity reflect the character of high temperature and high relative humidity in summer in Xiamen residential buildings. Discuss the methods of building energy saving. Suggest that, for seaside city in hot days, the natural ventilation and interval natural ventilation should be the main fundamental methods of improving the resident building thermal environment.


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