Effect of Shading Devices on an Office Building Energy Consumption in Hot Arid Climate: A Case Study for Kerman

Abstract

Considering the unfavorable conditions caused by the wasteful consumption of fossil fuels in order to ensure the comfort of the residents of the building sector, it seems necessary to reduce and prevent the energy wastes. Windows include a significant part of this waste due to penetration of solar heat and radiation. The use of shading devices is evaluated as a suitable strategy in order to improve the energy utilization performance of the building. In this article, physical specifications of an office building in Kerman, Iran are modeled in Sketch Up software. Then by assigning materials to the building components in Open Studio software, the building is simulated. Finally, the building energy consumption in the presence of overhangs, movable shading devices and simultaneous use of them, is calculated in Energy Plus software. Results showed that the use of movable shading devices have better performance in reducing energy consumption compared to overhangs. In this regard, the interior shade has reduced the annual energy consumption of the building up to 17.37 %, compared to the base state (same building with no shades). On the other hand, overhang with a depth of 50 (cm) and movable shade saves 40.29 (GJ) in the annual energy consumption of the building, and shows the most reduction in energy consumption.

Keywords

• energy plus
• hot arid climate
• movable shading device
• office building energy consumption
• overhang