Energy and carbon analysis of double skin façades in the hot and dry climate
Abstract
Double skin façades (DSF (are a popular feature in office buildings. Although these systems considerably reduce the heating energy demand in cold climates, overheating of indoor spaces and therefore excessive cooling energy consumption are the main problems of DSFs in warm climates. In addition to thermal performance, carbon footprint and are important factors in DSFs. In this study, the optimal DSF has been selected for an office building in Tehran among proposed design alternatives differing in the façade spatial configuration, shadings, and cavity ventilation strategies by dynamic simulations. The final model is selected based on minimum energy demand and the maximum thermal comfort hours. The overall carbon emissions and the costs during the building's life cycle are also assessed in different alternatives. According to results, the energy consumption is reduced from 7.9% to 14.8%. However, the simple payback period is more than the buildings lifetime (50 year) under current energy prices in Iran. Environmental analysis show that although the operational carbon emission is reduces by 14%–17%, the embodied carbon is increased by 23.3%–47%. Due to local construction methods and energy prices, assessing the economical feasibility and the environmental impact of this technology, are both vital in the decision making process for DSF application in buildings. Therefore, a new index, Energy Carbon Cost (ECC), is proposed to help define the best DSF design scenario.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Cleaner Production
- Pub Date:
- October 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.06.178
- Bibcode:
- 2018JCPro.197...85Z
- Keywords:
-
- Double skin façade;
- Energy demand;
- Carbon emission;
- Payback period;
- DSF;
- Double Skin Facade;
- SHGC;
- Solar Heat Gain Coefficient;
- BES;
- Building Energy Simulation;
- CFD;
- Computational Fluid Dynamic;
- ECC;
- Energy Carbon Cost;
- IEQ;
- Indoor Environmental Quality;
- PV;
- Photovoltaic;
- PCV;
- Phase Changing Material;
- HDPE;
- High Density Polyethylene;
- ACH;
- Air Change per Hour;
- NV;
- Natural Ventilation;
- ECO2;
- Embodied Carbon Dioxide;
- OCO2;
- Operational Carbon Dioxide;
- CPBP;
- Carbon Payback Period;
- HED;
- Heating Energy Demand and Reduction (HER);
- CED;
- Cooling Energy Demand and Reduction (CER);
- LED;
- Lighting Energy Demand and Reduction (LER);
- PER;
- Primary Energy Demand and Reduction (PER);
- FCC;
- Façade Construction Cost;
- PED;
- Primary Energy Demand;
- TEC;
- Total Energy Cost;
- SPP;
- Simple Payback Period;
- EOB;
- Equivalent of Oil Barrel;
- ICE;
- Inventory of Carbon & Energy