Optimum thermal design of office buildings

Proper design and selection of building components at the early stages of the design process can greatly help in achieving thermal comfort with minimum reliance upon HVAC systems and, therefore, minimum energy requirements. Given today's complexities in building design as well as advances in computer technology, optimization techniques can be used as an aid to building designers in their decision making process. Office buildings are characterized by being ‘internal-load’ dominated with internal heat generation determining the need for energy to air-condition such buildings. This paper presents the results of applying an optimization model to the design of energy conserving office buildings in different climatic regions to test the impact of mainly envelope related parameters on the thermal performance of offices. Optimum sets of building design variables for three different sizes office building in four U.S. and two Saudi Arabian cities are presented with the objective of minimizing annual energy consumption for those buildings. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

太阳墙技术在建筑节能中大有可为

在建筑行业普遍存在一个问题,就是能源和能源替代(包括太阳能的利用)的工作仅围绕着电力问题转.     

Embodied energy analysis of adobe house

In this paper an attempt has been made to develop a simple methodology to calculate embodied energy of the adobe house at Solar Energy Park, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi (28°35′N, 77°12′E) and its effect on the environment. The special feature of the adobe house is that, the whole house is constructed by using low energy intensive materials like soil, sand cow dung, etc. The embodied energy involved in construction of main structure, foundation, flooring, finishes, furniture, maintenance and electric work are 102 GJ, 214 GJ, 55 GJ, 5 GJ, 18 GJ, 59 GJ and 4 GJ, respectively. It is seen that the embodied energy involved in the maintenance of the adobe house (12% of total embodied energy) is significant. It has been found that approximately 370 GJ energy can be saved per year. The energy pay back time (EPBT) for the adobe house is 1.54 years. By using low energy intensive materials the mitigation of CO₂ in the environment is reduced by an amount 101 tonnes/year. The adobe house is more environmentally friendly house in comparison to conventional buildings.     

建筑南窗遮阳及设计分析研究

一前言被动式采暖太阳房是我国最成熟、应用范围最广、产业化发展最快的太阳能建筑技术之一。被动式太阳能供暖系统根据各地区气象条件,基本上不添置附加设备,只依靠建筑物本身的构造和材料的热工性能,使房屋尽可能多的吸收和贮存热量,以     

建筑照明设计中的节能措施

分析当前在照明节能设计中存在的问题,通过对照度确定与计算、合理选择光源、灯具、镇流器以及照明控制方式等方面的探讨,总结并提出照明节能设计的具体措施。     

Energy saving by realistic design data for commercial buildings in Hong Kong

Oversized equipment is one of the key factors for poor energy performance of commercial buildings in Hong Kong. Similar situations exist also in many buildings in different parts of the world. The use of realistic design criteria has been identified as an effective method to reduce the equipment oversizing problem. A set of realistic design criteria for lighting power density, occupation density, and appliances' load-intensity for various types of premises have been established based on data obtained in walk-through surveys of energy end-uses in 31 Hong Kong office buildings. Potential electricity savings through the use of realistic design criteria were estimated to be 6–22% of the electricity consumption of Hong Kong, which corresponds to an annual cost of HK$12.2–44.7 billion.     

Vary-therm wall for cooling/heating of buildings in composite climate

A modified form of Trombe Wall in which the glazing has been replaced by weather resistance material has been proposed and examined for winter heating and summer cooling in mixed climate conditions characterized by a mild winter and a relatively harsh dry summer. The experimental results indicate the potential applications of such a wall, known as Vary-Therm Wall, in solar passive building architecture for mixed climatic conditions.     

Application of sensitivity analysis in design of sustainable buildings

Building performance can be expressed by different indicators such as primary energy use, environmental load and/or the indoor environmental quality and a building performance simulation can provide the decision maker with a quantitative measure of the extent to which an integrated design solution satisfies the design objectives and criteria. In the design of sustainable buildings, it is beneficial to identify the most important design parameters in order to more efficiently develop alternative design solutions or reach optimized design solutions. Sensitivity analyses make it possible to identify the most important parameters in relation to building performance and to focus design and optimization of sustainable buildings on these fewer, but most important parameters. The sensitivity analyses will typically be performed at a reasonably early stage of the building design process, where it is still possible to influence the most important design parameters. A methodology of sensitivity analysis is presented and an application example is given for design of an office building in Denmark.     

Optimal control of auxiliary heating of passive-solar-heated buildings

Previous papers have demonstrated that low-cost off-peak electricity can be used to provide auxiliary heating for a passive-solar-heated residence. This paper describes the development of optimal control strategies for the operation of this auxiliary heating system. The temperature in the residence throughout the day as determined by computer simulation is presented for several optimal and conventional control strategies. The optimal control strategies improved the temperature control in the building compared to the conventional strategies. All strategies were shown to depend heavily on weather prediction. Computer simulations showed that errors in weather prediction had a small effect on heating cost and a large effect on being able to maintain the desired indoor temperature.     

Night cooling and ventilation design for office-type buildings

The suitability of night ventilation for cooling is first discussed by presenting a plot of summer weather conditions on the bioclimatic chart and by reporting on the results of energy and ventilation simulations of a typical UK office module. The development of a simplified design tool suitable for the early stages of design process is then described. For this model, user input is limited to a few key variables and the technique allows the designer to explore rapidly the effects of a range of design variables including variable external temperatures, internal gains and ventilation rates during the day and night.     

公共建筑玻璃窗的节能设计

门窗与玻璃幕墙是公共建筑节能设计的关键部位.研究表明,通过玻璃的能量损失占建筑能量消耗的第一位.介绍了常见节能玻璃的种类和性能以及常见的节能门窗结构,为建筑设计人员根据当地气象实际情况进行选择使用提供参考.     

Night ventilation control strategies in office buildings

In moderate climates night ventilation is an effective and energy-efficient approach to improve the indoor thermal environment for office buildings during the summer months, especially for heavyweight construction. However, is night ventilation a suitable strategy for office buildings with lightweight construction located in cold climates? In order to answer this question, the whole energy-consumption analysis software EnergyPlus was used to simulate the indoor thermal environment and energy consumption in typical office buildings with night mechanical ventilation in three cities in northern China. The summer outdoor climate data was analyzed, and three typical design days were chosen. The most important factors influencing night ventilation performance such as ventilation rates, ventilation duration, building mass and climatic conditions were evaluated. When night ventilation operation time is closer to active cooling time, the efficiency of night ventilation is higher. With night ventilation rate of 10 ach, the mean radiant temperature of the indoor surface decreased by up to 3.9 °C. The longer the duration of operation, the more efficient the night ventilation strategy becomes. The control strategies for three locations are given in the paper. Based on the optimized strategies, the operation consumption and fees are calculated. The results show that more energy is saved in office buildings cooled by a night ventilation system in northern China than ones that do not employ this strategy.     

住宅区电气节能设计的几个途径

本文从变压器选择、配电系统和绿色照明等三个方面讨论了住宅小区节能设计的方法及实现的途径。     

高层建筑空调节能设计的探讨

指出了空调系统耗能的两个方面，介绍了空调系统设计的几个节能措施，如合理降低室内温度湿度标准、控制与正确利用室外新风量等。     

低层太阳能建筑设计策略与技术

本人作品"可持续的、节能的、绿色的太阳房"获得了"2007年台达杯国家太阳能竞赛——我最喜爱的家"大众奖一等奖。本文以该作品为例分析了低层太阳能建筑设计中的自然因素的重要作用,以及采用的几种主要生态技术策略。     

Photovoltaic roofing: issues of design and integration into buildings

In the last decade, the development of photovoltaic roofing elements has been exceptional. These efforts were not limited to merely improving the integration methods with standard PV products but were also directed towards the production of appropriate elements that could replace roof tiles or shingles. This paper reviews some of the competing technologies for photovoltaic roofing and addresses the issues raised in the total integration of PV into roofing structures. The paper also discusses the general requirements of an idealised photovoltaic roofing system and some of the relevant variables that are required for the satisfaction of the end users. It has been shown that current strategies available for the true integration of PV elements as roof tiles or shingles utilising the sloped building fabric are limited. There are however, major on-going activities to research and develop roofing systems based on the foot-print of a roof tile or shingle.     

The Fresnel lens concept for solar control of buildings

Fresnel lenses are optical devices for solar radiation concentration and are of lower volume and weight, smaller focal length and lower cost, compared to the thick ordinary lenses. The advantage to separate the direct from the diffuse solar radiation makes Fresnel lenses suitable for illumination control of building interior space, providing light of suitable intensity level and without sharp contrasts. In this paper, the Fresnel lens concept is suggested for solar control of the buildings to keep the illumination and the interior temperature at the comfort level. Laboratory scale experimental results are presented, giving an idea about the application of this new optical system. The collection of 60–80% of the transmitted solar radiation through the Fresnel lenses on linear absorbers leaves the rest amount to be distributed in the interior space for the illumination and thermal building needs. In low intensity solar radiation, the absorber can be out of focus, leaving all light to come in the interior space and to keep the illumination at an acceptable level. The Fresnel lenses can be combined with thermal, photovoltaic, or hybrid type photovoltaic/thermal absorbers to collect and extract the concentrated solar radiation in the form of heat, electricity or both. By using thermal absorbers and for low operating temperature, efficiency of about 50% can be achieved, while considering photovoltaics, satisfactory electrical output can be obtained. Regarding the effect of the suggested system to building space cooling, the results showed a satisfactory temperature reduction, exceeding 10 °C for cold water circulation through the absorber.     

A distant-learning training module on the environmental design of urban buildings

The present paper aims to present a distant-learning training module that concerns the environmental design of urban buildings. The whole approach attempts to integrate topics that concern the design of urban buildings from various points of views, e.g. active and passive systems, automation systems, indoor air quality, economic aspects, energy and resources management. The package offers both printed and electronic material that gives the possibility to the students to study the various topics by using different educational methods. Additionally, the present package contains software tools that permit the students to examine real or hypothetical situations and to study further the influence of various parameters that concern the environmental building design.