Wout Parys, Dirk Saelens, Hugo Hens
Year:
2010
Bibliographic info:
31st AIVC Conference " Low Energy and Sustainable Ventilation Technologies for Green Buildings", Seoul, Korea, 26-28 October 2010

In this study, an attempt is made to define building design variables for a medium-sized office building with individual office cells in order to provide sufficient summer comfort without active cooling in a moderate climate.
Firstly, an approach to take realistic window-opening behavior into account is proposed based on observational data in literature. A stochastic model is defined for an active and a passive user, representing the variability between individuals.
The uncertainty in summer comfort due to the building use and occupant behavior is then assessed. The sensitivity of the simulated summer comfort proves to be substantial. A criterion for robustness of the building design for behavioral aspects is deduced from this analysis.
Finally, it is shown using the proposed criterion that for office cells with external shading where window-opening is allowed, satisfying summer comfort can be guaranteed independent of the building use if the glazing-to-wall-ratio does not exceed 60%.