Passive solar desing strategies for buildings: A case study on improvement of an existing residential building's thermal performance by passive solar design tools

Thesis (Master)--İzmir Institute of Technology, Architecture, İzmir, 2003Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 137-140)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 140 leavesThis thesis investigates the potentials of the use of Passive Solar Design strategies in existing low-rise residential buildings in the context of energy-efficient building design. Among the ways of developing energy-efficient building design, there are mainly active and passive systems to consider and the thesis focuses on passive ones which require integration of architectural characteristics and energy-efficiency strategies, which can likely be cost-effective and thermally comfortable as a result of that integration.In order to achieve the objective of the study, a methodology has been developed. Fist a thorough literature survey is conducted. Then examples related to subject are investigated. Finally an existing residential building is selected and analysed as the case study. Current thermal performance and improved thermal performance of this building are analysed by the help of a software called Energy-10. Results of both original and improved projects are interpreted accordingly.In buildings, Passive Solar Design strategies can provide fundamental comfort conditions related to heating, cooling for thermal and natural lighting for visual comfort or help building.s conventional mechanical systems achieve these conditions requiring less amount of energy. Some of the Passive Solar Desgin strategies are seem in traditional architecture from harsh cold to hot humid climate, they have been in harmony with their environment and provide comfort conditions adjusting the outdoor climatic features by climatic design strategies and they are called as climate-responsive buildings. Solar orientation, solar apertures, thermal mass, solar chimneys, wind captures, lattice brise-soleils or mushrabiyas are the Passive Solar Design elements which have been used in traditional buildings, now abandoned, running by means of natural air currents.To achieve a low-energy building, thermal insulation ought to be considered as the main energy-efficiency feature. Turkish thermal insulation standarts .TS 825. is deficient for designing low-energy buildings and there is no regulations that make the designers feel the desire to utilize low-energy concepts for their designs. Besides, the building.s morphological organisation should be involved with respect to climatic and environmental data. One of the most important criterion in designing an energy-efficient building is incoprating properties of microclimate of the site that the building is to be placed. Using environmental (climatic, geographic, etc.) data well in building designs can lead to energy efficiency. Solar geometry, latitude, altitude, wind patterns, vegetation, hills and neighbor buildings are the determinants of microclimate of a site.The findings of the study indicate that with the energy-efficiency design strategies by passive solar components having the additional cost of about 9% of the total building cost, it is possible to save the total annual energy used in this specific residential building by 18%. There are three types of energy need for the space conditioning and visual comfort (i. e., heating, cooling and lighting), the maximum energy saving is achieved in heating energy use by 61% decrease, lighting energy use is also decreased by 40%. However, in cooling energy need, there is an increase of 34%. This amount is overshadowed by passive solar gains in other energy savings (i. e., heating and lighting) and when the cooling strategies of the building (i. e., natural ventilation and stack effect ventilation) are considered, the building might be said to perform well in terms of thermaly in annual operation

Urban sunspaces : ecology of atria and arcades

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-167).Historically, atria were protected interior patios; well perceived for their climate tempering and spatial amenity to the building; matching a peaceful private outdoor with the yearly climate cycles. Public buildings adopted this in larger scale, and with the ending 18th century, atria and arcades merged to a period of architectural highlights of glass covered interiors in steel and glass. Passages, hotels and public buildings of an emerging industrial society in Europe and Northern States spurred the evolution of the "Great Indoors" as an urban feature. The ecology of these indoors were consciously achieved by passive means of temperature control. With the rise of mechanical conditioning and excessive use of glass at facades by the beginning of this century, atria and arcades disappeared more or less from the architectural vocabulary. The late 1950s though experienced a revival of atria as a commercial amenity in malls, hotels and similar type of public places. These atria, however, were generally mechanical conditioned; just typically being enormous energy wasters. With the growing urge for energy conservation today, new parameters form our buildings. For this, atria and arcades of urban scale and passive control achieve a new validity as energy conscious urban form. As the key to our energy future in buildings lies well in the urban context, whose inventory per se offers already a fair degree of energy efficiency, improvements there would yield greatest rewards compared to current suburban solar sprawl. The re-interpretation of atria and arcades will provide a perfect planning tool for this urban energy conservation. The glass covered indoors will match with urban scale and site restraints and spur urban life for livable norther winter cities. Exploring atria and arcades as climate buffers and interior amenity for snow belt latitudes, this thesis presents an architectural review, and concludes with design patterns for habitable and energy conscious urban indoors.by Joachim W. Glässel.M.S

Quantifying the performance of natural ventilation windcatchers

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Doctor of Environmental Technology and awarded by Brunel University, 2010.The significant energy consumption of non- domestic buildings has led to renewed interest in natural ventilation strategies that utilise the action of the wind, and the buoyancy of hot air. One natural ventilation element is the Windcatcher, a roof mounted device that works by channelling air into a room under the action of wind pressure, whilst simultaneously drawing air out of the room by virtue of a low pressure region created downstream of the element. A significant number of Windcatchers are fitted in UK schools where good indoor air quality is essential for the health and performance of children. The performance of a ventilation system in a school classroom is determined by its ability to provide ventilation in accordance with UK government ventilation, air quality, and acoustic requirements. However, there is only limited performance data available for a Windcatcher, particularly when operating in-situ. Accordingly, this thesis investigates the performance of a Windcatcher in three ways: First, a semi-empirical model is developed that combines an envelope flow model with existing experimental data. Second, measurements of air temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide, and noise levels in school classrooms are assessed over summer and winter months and the results compared against UK Government requirements. Finally, air flow rates are measured in twenty four classrooms and compared against the semi-empirical predictions. The monitoring reveals that air quality in classrooms ventilated by a Windcatcher has the potential to be better than that reported for conventional natural ventilation strategies such as windows. Furthermore, an autonomous Windcatcher is shown to deliver the minimum ventilation rates specified by the UK Government, and when combined with open windows a Windcatcher is also capable of providing the required mean and purge ventilation rates. These findings are then used to develop an algorithm that will size a Windcatcher for a particular application, as well as helping to improve the ventilation strategy for a building that employs a Windcatcher.This research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Monodraught Ltd

The Integration of Architectural Design and Energy Modelling Software

Intelligent and integrated architectural design can substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from energy used in buildings. However, architects need new tools to help them to design enjoyable, comfortable, attractive and yet technically rigorous, low energy buildings. This thesis investigates, by means of a Research Through Design approach, how architectural software could be better designed to fulfil this need by the integration of design, energy simulation and decision support systems. The problem domain of the design of buildings with very low energy requirements was analysed. Two case studies were employed to investigate the limitations with current software. User and domain software requirements were recorded and analysed. Conflicting requirements were noted, in particular, dichotomous views of the building model. An investigation was carried out into the different interoperable standards that result in these views and rules on how to compose the building model as a series of Intelligent Spaces proposed. The Intelligent Spaces would be abstract volumes, enclosed by zero thickness surfaces, which have data and rules attached. Early prototyping of integrated software was carried out by means of a series of sketches and diagrammatic examples. The novel feature of the proposal is that it maintains both an abstract and detailed version of the building model through all stages of the building design and use. Key features of the proposed software are: 1) the ability to move iteratively between sketch to detailed design to explore different approaches to the building form and construction, 2) the setting and monitoring of relevant energy targets throughout the different building design stages and 3) the integration of an advisory system linked to energy targets to support decision making. This space based approach to the software has the potential to provide a ‘designerly’ front to the sophisticated processes of a Building Information Modelling environment

Focus on energy conservation: a project list

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has prepared the following list of outstanding energy conserving projects for the US Department of Energy. As requested by the Department, the list includes descriptions of land developments and individual buildings suggested by members of ULI and by other sources. The projects have been selected to exemplify the major energy saving techniques in use today, with emphasis on those strategies most significant for people engaged in the business of land development. To make the list a useful reference for developers and public officials, ULI has attempted to cover energy conservation in the broadest sense from overall site planning to the functioning of individual building components. Focusing too closely on the myriad types of hardware available has been avoided and examples of the basic considerations important to energy-conscious planning and design are provided. Details on some heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are provided in order to acquaint readers with major innovations in the field

Advances in raw material industries for sustainable development goals

"""Advances in Raw Material Industries for Sustainable Development Goals"" presents the results of joint scientific research conducted in the context of the Russian-German Raw Materials Forum. Today Russia and Germany are exploring various forms of cooperation in the field of mining, geology, mineralogy, mechanical engineering and energy. Russia and Germany are equally interested in expanding cooperation and modernizing the economy in terms of sustainable development. The main theme of this article collection is connected with existing business ventures and ideas from both Russia and Germany. In this book the authors regard complex processes in mining industry from various points of view, including: - modern technologies in prospecting, exploration and development of mineral resources - progressive methods of natural and industrial mineral raw materials processing - energy technologies and digital technologies for sustainable development - cutting-edge technologies and innovations in the oil and gas industry. Working with young researchers, supporting their individual professional development and creating conditions for their mobility and scientific cooperation are essential parts of Russian-German Raw Materials Forum founded in Dresden 13 years ago. This collection represents both willingness of young researchers to be involved in large-scale international projects like Russian-German Raw Material Forum and the results of their long and thorough work in the promising areas of cooperation between Russia and Germany.

Microclimate and building energy in the built environment: A study of planning high-rise building groups at a city-block scale in China

In the past two decades, most regions of China have gone into the process of rapid urbanisation. In response to the enormous pressure due to the booming economy and fast growth in urban population, large-scale high-rise building group appeared and dominated the civil construction industry. However, these city-block scale estate projects have been criticised for the low-level thermal comfort in poorly designed indoor/outdoor spaces, and for its high energy consumption. Chengdu, a megacity in China, has been chosen as the research subject in consideration of its high urbanisation speed with a large number of estate projects at city-block scale and the deteriorating urban built environment. This study investigates the impact of multi-design variables on microclimates and the building energy performance of large-scale buildings through the application of GIS mapping and modelling. The relevant tools used in this study are ArcMap, ENVI-met, and SketchUp integrated with HTB2 and Virvil Plug-in. The study makes contributions to the research on microclimate and building energy consumption in four aspects. Firstly, it fills the gap in the outdoor thermal comfort and building energy consumption study at city-block scale in China by building up a theoretical framework of planning and design the high-rise building group in China. Secondly, design guidelines are established to improve both the microclimate performance and the building energy performance. Thirdly, a new approach to observe the local temperature of multi-scale subjects in a long-time period is concluded, which provides a new option of a method to analysis microclimate conditions for building scale research. Lastly, this study offers implications to relevant stakeholders for understanding the evaluation of low-carbon development at city-block scale. There are four phases in this study. In the first phase, document analysis is used to review the existing literature for discovering the research gaps, selecting potential measurements and technical tools, understanding the background and development history of the research subject. The second phase is the observation on microclimate condition. At this stage, on-site local urban heat island intensity is obtained by mapping the derived MODIS satellite data. In the third phase, multi-stage computational simulations will be used to calculate the microclimate performance and building energy performance accordingly. The former provides the predicted local meteorological data to be compared with data obtained from MODIS satellite, as well as the local air temperature of the target project sites for the adjusted simulation of the later which quantify the impact of variation in outdoor temperature. In the last phase, quantitative analysis and discussion are carried out for the results. Therefore, design guidelines of design strategy for mitigating building energy demand and optimising outdoor thermal comfort at city-block scale are concluded