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Corresponding Author

Youssef, Amr

Subject Area

Architectural Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

A growing attention has been paid to building envelope features for achieving lower energy consumption especially in large office buildings and hot climate zones, since these features and their variables are affecting energy consumption widely and with different sensitivity. Therefore, this paper conducts simulation-based comparative analyses between main envelope features with their internal variables; the selected features for this study are building geometry ratios, orientations and common envelope finishing materials (FMs). Two applications have been conducted (comparing cases with either a same or different building volumes), and more than 500 cases/simulations have been conducted and studied in total. Accordingly, sensitive features and variables have been determined to enrich design decisions for different cases, along with best variables' integrations that achieve best energy consumption through the proposed applications and cases. Cubic office buildings in Egypt have been used to demonstrate the study, and energy simulations have been achieved using eQuest (DOE-2). Results show that lower height with wider roof achieves best energy consumption if building volume is fixed via comparisons, and vice versa. Gravel and galvanized steel represent best studied roof and walls' FMs, while roofing shingles is the worst one. If building volume is varied via comparisons, horizontal dimensions are the most sensitive feature that affects energy consumption per m2, while FMs and height represent lowest sensitivity among studied features. Ranking of cases, features, variables along with sensitive features in details have been analyzed and discussed through the paper.

Keywords

Simulation; Comparative Analyses; Building envelope; energy consumption; finishing materials

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