Alexander Ganse
Energy evaluation of office buildings. FH Aachen (Germany)
Nowadays transparent glass office buildings are a world-wide trend. They are sold as pollution free, energy-saving "solar houses.” In fact there are multiple newer buildings, which cannot be used without substantial plant expenditure. Obvious additional expenditure of energy for these buildings stand contrary to the global efforts to develop resource-saving procedures and techniques to work in energy and cost-efficient ways on the one hand and to lower the carbon dioxide output on the other hand.
A problem in planning phase of a building project consist of timely and adequately determining alternative energy requirements. This is however from economical as well as ecological aspects necessary in order to meet a balanced design decision.
The complexity of computations of thermo-dynamic processes, which constitute of an energy balanced calculation, can be mastered only by simulation programs. They enable the complex cooperation and computation of equipment technology, building structure and environmental factors and give close-to-reality prognoses over the energy balances. Thus different design and construction alternatives regarding the energy efficiency can be compared in the planning phase.
In the presented work based on a standardised office building design and using the aid of the simulation program "TRNsys", a systematic comparison of different facade types (glass, concrete, steal and GRP air gel) is accomplished regarding their energy efficiency.
The project design consists of a three storey computing centre with appropriate office and technical areas. The building skeleton is of reinforced concrete has a universal floor plan with a simple development structure. The different facade types are attached to this basic construction without incurring large construction changes. The evaluation of the simulation results shows very clearly that the transparent facade types must be placed in question, especially in regard to energy and economic aspects. The results of this research are representative and should be considered and included into future design processes.
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