Building simulation for energy efficient solar shading

Abstract

The external horizontal shading device is an important climatic design element in the tropical climate. According to the revi ew, little is known about the in fluence of external horizontal shading device on reducing the solar heat gains, daylight penetration and the building energy consumption. Another important aspect is that the review on energy audits indicated a high intensity of energy consumption (an average of 269kWh/m2) for office buildings in Malaysia. However, significant energy savings can be achieved in buildings if they are properly design and operated. Therefore, it is important to investigat e the above interrelated issues to determine appropriate solar shading design strategies for the corresponden ce climate conditions. Also, early design decisions are the most effective than maki ng changes at later stag es after construction, which is time consuming and costly. According to the literature review, energy perfor mance of high-rise building is influenced by several design variables. The best option to optim ize the total building energy consumption is to test the number of design alte rnatives, which is time consumi ng and laborious approach. The other way of dealing with the problem is by varying one variable at a time and keeping the others fixed at reasonable practical values in order to de termine the effect of the particular variable on the energy performance of the building.