A parametric sensitivity analysis of the impact of built environment geometrical variables on building energy consumption

Lila, Anas; Lannon, Simon

Abstract

The growth of urban communities creates the need for analytical frameworks that have a multiobjective and holistic approach. It is important to integrate these frameworks within commonly used architectural tools. The urban environment is mostly designed and formed by architects and urban planners who can create more sustainable urban growth. In this paper, urban geometry will be explored as it has a significant influence on the building heat loss/gain that determines the energy demand needed to achieve indoor thermal comfort. Simulation tools have been created to analyse and optimize urban geometrical variables in a multiobjective approach. This study analysed urban geometrical variables such as (height, capacity, orientation and window to wall ratio). In addition, it gives an insight of the buildings’ inter-shadowing effect by adding the context buildings’ capacity in the grid. The results show that daylighting analysis consumes almost triple the time using multi-objective, multi-zone geometrical iterations. In this set of inputs for hot arid climates there is a minor impact on cooling energy consumption, suggesting that the study daylighting distribution should be postponed to a later design stage rather being a key component of energy analysis in early design stage. This study shows that WWR has the highest impact on the building thermal cooling consumption in this urban context, then comes built area ratio and finally building height for midrise residential buildings.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 33rd PLEA International Conference
• Start Date: Jul 5, 2017
• End Date: Jul 7, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 17, 2023
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 2092
• Book Title: Proceedings from the 33 International Conference PLEA2017 : Design to Thrive : Volume 1
• ISBN: 978-0-9928957-5-4
• Keywords: Parametric simulation, energy demand, lighting control, daylighting, urban geometry
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10274608
• Publisher URL: https://plea2017.net/#programmes-container