A COMPARISON OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A SOUTH-FACING OFFICE BUILDING IN MOIST CONTINENTAL AND SUBTROPICAL HOT DESERT CLIMATES - COMPUTER SIMULATION-BASED BUILDING PERFORMANCE ANALYSES (BPA)

Stringent requirements of the design of buildings that are energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and meet their users' needs combined with enormous progress in computer simulation tools put forwards the applications of computer simulation-based building performance analyses (BPA) in the building sector. Buildings that are designed to be high-performing need evaluation and validation and the simulations are the key tools to do it at design stage. This paper focuses on the relationship between daylight availability, users' comfort and energy consumption in high-performance office buildings. A south-facing office located in two diametrically opposite climates was used to examine the relationship and its influence on an overall building performance. Computer simulation-based building performance analyses were applied to evaluate the influence of various architectural strategies on: illuminances from daylighting; users' visual comfort; heating, cooling and lighting energy consumption. The office locations are: 1) the south of Poland (latitude: 50°N, longitude: 20°E) - climate: Dfb - moist continental climate with temperatures in winter to -20°C and in summer to 32°C (Koppen classification); 5A - cool-humid (ASHRAE climate zone); 2) the southwestern United States (latitude: 33.5°N, longitude: 112°W) - climate: BWh - subtropical hot desert climate with temperatures in winter to 2°C and in summer to 44°C (Koppen classification); 1B - very hot-dry (ASHRAE climate zone). The analysed office space is sidelit open-, narrow-plan form and the building is low-rise. The innovative computer simulation tools - DIVA (Radiance, Daysim, Evalglare, EnergyPlus, Archsim), Autodesk Ecotect and Climate Consultant software were used in the studies. In order to show the effect of various facade solutions on the overall building performance, a comparison of some key design variables like type of glazing material (low E, clear glass), daylight distribution and redirection systems (light shelves) and shading devices (static, dynamic) was performed. The aim of this paper was also to assess the impact of occupants' behaviours on visual comfort, daylight availability and energy consumption.