Energy Use and Lighting of Algal Green Buildings

Abstract

Green buildings can provide a growth environment for microalgae growth on their façades, where a closed environment mimicks the organisms’ natural environment and functions as a window. This study investigates such a façade’s effect on energy saving by optimizing the performances of useful daylight illuminance (UDI) and energy use intensity (EUI) in the Mediterranean climate. The study was carried out in two stages. The first stage is a parametric study using the Colibri tool to look at the algae content and the effect of WWR for the north and south orientations. Meanwhile the second stage adds different design parameters of orientation, window type, WWR, wall type and thickness, insulation thickness. Optimization of UDI and EUI separately allows an in-depth discussion of these parameters for both performances. The obtained parametric results show the effects of WWR and algae content. Regression analysis explains that WWR has a linear relationship with EUI and a polynomial relationship with UDI. There is no such relationship for algae content, yet it changes UDI results the most (%46.22-81.66 for 50% WWR). Then, computational simulations regard effects of other factors for performance optimization.