IBPSA2009

Double-skin facade (DSF) buildings are being built as an attractive, innovative and energy efficient solution. Nowadays, several design tools are used for assessment of thermal and energy performance of DSF buildings. Existing design tools are well-suited for performance assessment of conventional buildings, but their accuracy might be limited in cases with DSFs because of the complexity of the heat and mass transfer processes within the DSF.

A set of validation test cases are presented for comparing the results of mid-level detailed ground-coupled heat transfer models typically used with whole-building energy simulation software to verified detailed numerical ground-coupled heat transfer models. A new validation methodology development is also presented that uses an analytical solution for verifying detailed numerical models for overall correctness and proper application.

This paper presents an overview of the recently completed International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Task 34 and Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Annex 43 (IEA 34/43) on Testing and Validation of Building Energy Simulation Tools. The paper includes discussion of the technical and historical context, methodology, organization, accomplishments, and adoption by standards organizations and other regulatory entities.

In this paper we describe new software “CitySim” that has been conceived to support the more sustainable planning of urban settlements. This first version focuses on simulating buildings’ energy flows, but work is also under way to model energy embodied in materials as well as the flows of water and waste and inter-relationships between these flows; likewise their dependence on the urban climate. We discuss this as well as progress that has been made to optimise urban resource flows using evolutionary algorithms. But this is only part of the picture.

Approximately 33% of total annual energy consumption and carbon emission in Belgrade (Serbia) are related to the housing sector. As such, the housing sector represents a key determinant in the development of an overall national carbon reduction strategy. The development of an effective carbon reduction strategy increasingly requires use and development of detailed predictive tools.

With very low rates of replacement of the existing somewhat dated housing stock a key challenge for nations to meet their emissions reduction targets during the coming years will be to improve the energy performance of existing buildings within their cities. In this paper we describe the preliminary form of a system dynamics model of the housing stock of the city of Basel in Switzerland and investigate how this may evolve up to the year 2050. In particular we model the renovation process of the stock, test the key parameters influencing this process (e.g.

This paper demonstrates a systematic approach towards exploring the impact of urban built form and the heat island effect on the levels of domestic energy consumption in London. The study combines GIS databases and a modified version of the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) algorithm in order to estimate the space heating demand of urban domestic energy users. The output data is aggregated to the Middle Layer Super Output Area (MLSOA) level.

Mixed-Mode ventilation is an innovative approach that maximizes the use of natural ventilation and uses supplementary mechanical cooling only when strictly required. The application of Mixed-Mode ventilation in severe arid climates and its integration with other passive cooling strategies is very challenging and has not been systematically studied. The paper will present an evaluation of the performance of different Mixed-Mode cooling strategies for a single-zone office space in four main arid cities that represent the diversity in arid climates.

This study analyses vertical temperature profiles for displacement ventilation depending on a ceiling height of an small office room. This study purposes to investigate the influence of the ceiling height on thermal comfort of the occupants. Numerical simulations are carried out for a modeled room which dimensions 5.3m by 5.44m by 2.5m, 3m and 3.5m ceiling height. A finite volume method is used for solving the governing equations and low Reynolds number k-ε model is applied as a turbulent model.

The present study aims to validate several cross and single-sided natural ventilation models implemented in the Building Hygrothermal and Energy Simulation program PowerDomus (Mendes et al., 2003) i.e. the British Standard (1999) model for cross ventilation and the de Gids and Phaff's (1982) and Larsen’s (2006) models for single-sided ventilation. Airflow rates obtained by those models are compared to the measurements performed in two full-scale buildings: one single room house located in a wind tunnel facility and one real three-storey building.