Investigation of microclimatic envelopes for a building area with respect to indoor environment and energy performance

Abstract

A microclimatic envelope usually corresponds to a transparent covering that encloses a large space around building areas. It is supposed to create favorable conditions compared to the weather present outside the envelope and at the same time it is expected to contribute to the energy savings of the building. Therefore, this project focuses on the investigation of microclimatic envelopes around building areas with respect to indoor quality and energy consumption in the Danish climate. Additionally, a study on the indoor quality achieved in the open spaces within the envelope is conducted. Furthermore, the implementation of the design considerations for the microclimatic envelope in the building simulation software IESVE is investigated. In this project, the microclimatic envelope is chosen to cover a building area in a university campus. First, the building is modeled and analyzed. Secondly, the microclimatic envelope is designed and the indoor quality obtained. Next, these two models are combined, to study the effect of the microclimatic envelope on the building. It should be mentioned that during the modeling process some software limitation were encountered, nonetheless the possible effects of them are evaluated. The overall evaluation of the design showed that the microclimatic envelope reduces the energy consumption of the building but the magnitude of its reduction is only 10.5%. The heating consumption is the major contributor to this reduction which single handedly reduces the consumption by 12.11%. Furthermore, the indoor environment inside the building is also influenced. Tendencies towards overheating conditions appear and the daylight factor is reduced to approximately 30%. However, the building still manages to be within the 100 hours limit, outside the operative ranges and thus satisfies the indoor environment Class II. Moreover, an important feature of the microclimate was found to be with respect to the thermal conditions obtained in the open spaces from April to the first week of October; meaning that between these months 977 hours fulfill the temperature ranges of 18-26˚C. Additionally, the number of hours under zero degrees was reduced by 1084 hours.