The effect of suspended ceilings on energy performance and thermal comfort

The objective of this study is to determine the potential energy savings and thermal comfort benefits of exposing concrete in the ceiling to the indoor air as an alternative to suspended ceiling. The performances were assessed through monitoring of room air and surface temperatures in an office building in operation, and simulation of different scenarios with a calibrated building simulation model. In this study, it is shown that ESP-r is capable of simulating an advanced controlled office building in operation with good agreement with the measurements. The results presented in this paper indicate that exposed concrete in the ceiling both reduces the number of hours with excessive temperatures considerably and create a better and more stable thermal environment during the working day. Also, exposed concrete increases the achievements of utilizing night free cooling significantly. However, by removing the suspended ceiling, only minor annual heating energy savings are achieved.