Module 2 - Form, Skin and Climate

A. FUNDAMENTALS OF CLIMATE
Climates can be classified into a few main types
The Köppen categories are based on the annual and monthly averages of temperature
and precipitation with five main groups: tropical, arid, temperate, cold, and polar.

B. FUNDAMENTALS OF BUILDING PHYSICS:

I. The laws of physics dictate the thermal behavior of a building:
The principles of heat transfer (thermodynamics) – nhiệt động học are the key to
understanding thermal comfort in buildings

Five fundamental concepts of heat transfer

 Heat always moves from a warmer to a
colder area.
 In winter, heat is transferred from the
interior of a heated building to the
exterior.
 In summer, heat may transfer from the
exterior to the interior during the day
and may move in the other direction at
night if it is cooler outside.
 Solar radiation causes heat gain.
 Wind, ground connection, radiation, and
evaporation from the building cause
heat loss.

Even though solar gain is a key factor, people, lights and equipment also radiate heat
causing interior heat gain.

 There are four main ways that heat gets transferred:

1. Evaporation:
Water changes state: liquid to gas, releasing heat, such as when we sweat.
This removal of heat from the skin by evaporation is aided by convection (đối lưu).
2. Convection:
Natural or forced movement of air or liquid
Heated air becomes less dense and rises, and cooler air is drawn in to fill the
space left by the displaced (di chuyển để lại) heated air.

3. Conduction:
Conduction is heat transfer through direct contact
Denser substances conduct more
Heat is always conducted from warm to cold

4. Radiation
Radiation is heat wave transmission with or without a medium
Surfaces with high emissivity radiate more heat

II. Understanding temperature demands in buildings:

 Cooling demand in buildings
Cooling loads are the result of a combination of external and internal heat gains. The
image below shows where the demand for cooling in the building comes from.
 External factors: solar heat gain (main factor), outside air temperature & wind.
 Internal factors: heat generated by human bodies, lighting, appliances, process
inside building
The following mechanisms can help reduce cooling demand:
 Shading can help reduce direct heat gains from radiation.
 Ventilation can provide cooling through convection.
 Insulation can help stop the heat transfer from conduction.

 Understanding heating demand in buildings

Conduction is the main concern for managing heating demand.
External factor: outside air temperature & wind (key)
Internal factor: the insulation of the structure & processes (e.g. refrigeration in
supermarket)

The following mechanisms can help decrease heating load:

Solar gains and internal gains
Insulation

 Achieving thermal comfort is at the core of climate-responsive design

Thermal comfort is a subjective concept, with individuals able to react differently in the
same space.
There are three factors that determine thermal comfort: environmental,
physiological, and psychological.
1. Environmental factors 2. Physiological factors 3. Psychological factors
Humidity Clothing cannot be measured,
but only 'felt', and are
Air movement Activity
subjective.
Surface temperatures Metabolic rate
Sealed/unsealed
Mean radiant Age envelope
temperature
Gender Air quality and feeling of
freshness
Vegetation and water
bodies

C. MANAGING HEAT TRANSFER IN BUILDINGS:

I. Dealing with solar radiation is key to thermal comfort
Heat (the sun)  a space via a window (directly) or opaque (mờ đục) elements
(indirectly) through of the building fabric (kết cấu).
Form can be influenced in numerous ways to manage solar gain
Depending on the climate  minimize or maximize solar heat gain - examined before
compensating with mechanical systems.

Reducing the surface area will minimize heat transfer.

A narrower plan depth will maximize daylighting and natural ventilation.

The ratio of surface area to floor area is optimized by establishing the right balance
between surface area and plan depth (chiều sâu mặt bằng).

II. Form and orientation:

 Optimizing orientation and form
Along with form, another tactic that influences
surface area is orientation to manage solar
gains and wind exposure.
 Minimizing east and west orientations reduces heat gains.
The sun’s path is fixed in the sky for a
given latitude (vĩ độ) for a given day of the
year, but it varies by season.
The sun follows a longer path in the
summer, reaching a higher point in the
sky.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the southern
face of a building will get the most direct
sun.

 Building typology and shape affects solar gains

For the same floor area, two urban forms can have different the surface area to volume
ratio the amount of the direct solar gain, daylight availability and natural ventilation.

Building plan shape affects the surface area to volume ratio and the solar gain.
To optimize sun and shade, the building needs to be oriented to receive or block (đón
và cản) the sun’s rays as appropriate for the location:

In the Southern Hemisphere, the north

face of a building will get the most direct
sun
In the Northern Hemisphere, the
southern face of a building will get the
most direct sun

III. Window-to-wall ratio:

 Optimizing the window-to-wall ratio (WWR)
Heat flows through a plain glass window more than
10 times faster than it does through a well-
insulated wall.
With light output at more than 100 times the desired
indoor light levels, the sun is the most powerful light
source but also one of significant heat gain.
Therefore, it is important to balance the lighting and
ventilation benefits of windows against the effects of
heat gain on cooling needs and on passive heating.
The ratio of window area to the exterior wall area is
known as WWR, or window-to-wall ratio,
and it has a large impact on a building’s
energy performance.

The graph above shows that a building

with high-performance glazing but a
high WWR of 75% uses the same
amount of energy as a building with
single pane glass but a lower WWR of
30%. Therefore, designing with a lower
WWR is an effective strategy for
managing heat gain.
In temperate and warm climates, the goal of the design should be to meet the
minimum light levels without increasing solar heat gains.
In cold climates, the goal should be to make the most of passive heating in
wintertime, while protecting the building from too much heat loss.

Energy bills can be decreased when: WWR is reduced, glass type is improved, or
when insulation is added.

IV. Insulation in roof and walls:

Good building insulation  reduce heating and cooling requirement
 prevents conductive heat flow between the outside and the inside.

U-value is a measure of the amount of heat conducted through a material at a given

thickness.
The lower the U-value, the better the building performance (more insulating).
Increasing the thickness reduces the U-Value.

 Types of insulation
There are many different types of
insulation available: Blankets, blown-in,
foam (xốp), and rigid board (ván cứng).
The table shows that different materials
provide the same effective U-value at
different thicknesses.
VIP: tấm cách nhiệt chân không
 Non-insulating and insulating glazing
Like insulation, “glazing systems” with lower
conduction (lower U-value) can be selected for
their insulating properties. A glazing system
refers to the glass and frame.

The key features that contribute to insulating glazing

systems are:
The gaps between layers of glass
Use of inert gases (khí trơ) (which conduct less heat
than air) between the glass panes
Insulating frames

Two inches of common insulation has lower U-value than the best glass.

 Solar Control Glass

reduce “radiant” heat gain from the sun.
A reflective film  the glass to reduce radiant heat transfer.
This reflective film - Low-E film, where “E” stands for emissivity. A lower emissivity
means less heat is radiated.

Radiant heat gain through the glass is measured as SHGC, which stands for the Solar
Heat Gain Coefficient - Hệ số hấp thụ nhiệt của kính
SHGC denotes the fraction of heat transmitted through the glass via radiation,
expressed as a fraction between 0 and 1.
The image below shows the ways in which solar radiation is transferred into buildings
through a single pane of glass, compared to a double-pane glass with Low-E
coating. All the different ways of heat transfer add up to 100% or 1.

The Low-E coating - keep heat inside or

outside depending on the location of the
Low-E coating.
In hot places, the inside surface of the
outside glass (surface #2) is best for Low-
E coating to keep heat out.
In cold weather, surface #3 is better.

In both warm and cool climates, the lower U-value of Low-E glazing and or increased
layers of glazing is an advantage
A lower SHGC is better in warm climates, but not desirable in cold climates.

V. Shading devices
The appropriate exterior sun-shading devices  reduce
solar heat gain during summer months and prevent glare.
The sun follows a fixed path in the sky for any location
depending on the time of the year.
External shading devices can be designed to take
advantage of these predictable paths to cut out the
higher summer sun but let in the lower winter sun.
Horizontal sunshades work well on south-
facing walls in the Northern Hemisphere or
north-facing walls in the Southern
Hemisphere.

For the east

and west-facing windows, vertical louvres work
better to control solar gain because the sun
moves in a more vertical direction when it is rising
and setting.

VI. Surface reflectivity:

Solar reflectivity (SR) – độ phát xạ nhiệt (aka
albedo) measures the reflectivity of a
material finish for the full solar spectrum.
Exterior finishes that are highly reflective
reduce heat gain in hot climates.

Solar Reflectivity Index (SRI) - chỉ số phản xạ bức xạ mặt trời is another
measurement for reflective properties that also considers emissivity. Darker roofs with
high SRI can be surprisingly cool.

Practical exercise: Modelling Passive Design Measures in EDGE

Changing the shape and orientation
In the Design tab, under Building Orientation, make the following changes. In each
case, scroll up to the top and note the Energy Savings (%), and the Final Energy Use
(kWh) in the Results bar into an Excel spreadsheet.
Change Floor Plan Depth to 20m. Note the Energy savings. -5.32%
Change the Main Orientation from 'South' to East. Note the Energy savings. -9.04%
Change the Main Orientation from 'East' to Southeast. Note the Energy savings. 7.26%

Unselect the measure OFE01. Leave the Main Orientation as ‘Southeast’ and Floor
plan Depth as 20 m. Save the File. The Energy savings at this point will show -
0.17%, and the Final energy use in the Results bar will reflect 72,034.66
kWh/Month. Note that the small negative savings you see here are caused by the
combination of orientation and building geometry.

In the Energy tab, select OFE01 again. Model decreasing window-to-wall ratio in all four
directions by changing the values in the four available fields to:
1. 80: -17.54% ENERGY SAVINGS – FINAL ENERGY USE: 84,523.05 kWh/month
2. 60: -7.61% ENERGY SAVINGS – FINAL ENERGY USE: 77,383.52 kWh/month
3. 40: 2.30% ENERGY SAVINGS – FINAL ENERGY USE: 70,253.18 kWh/month
4. 20: 12.20% ENERGY SAVINGS – FINAL ENERGY USE: 63,137.45 kWh/month
Make a note of the Energy savings values at each step in your Excel spreadsheet. Also,
note that Final energy use in kWh from the Results Bar. (Do you see a pattern?)

Unselect the measure OFE01 (this will reset the model to the default WWR value of the
base case). Save the file.

On the Energy tab, select OFE05: Insulation of Roof. Click on the Options Menu to the
right (marked by three vertical dots or ellipsis). Click on the Calculator.

Add the following three layers of materials from the list to the roof assembly:

Bitumen — Felt/Sheet
Thickness: 2 mm
Insulation — Board, expanded polystyrene EPS, medium-density (24)
Thickness: 50 mm
Concrete — High density (2400)
Thickness: 200 mm
'Insert' the calculated value. This will bring you back to the main App.

Note the following three values: the resulting U-value in the measure name Insulation
of Roof, U-value of 0.6 W/m2∙K,
the Energy savings – 4.37%, and the Final energy – 68,768.86 kWh/month use in the
Results bar.

Click on the Calculator again and change the insulation thickness to the following
values:

100 mm
Insulation of Roof, U-value of 0.29 W/m2∙K
The Energy savings 5.31% W/m2∙K,
The Final energy 68,089.76 kWh/month

150 mm
Insulation of Roof, U-value of 0.19 W/m2∙K
The Energy savings 5.62% W/m2∙K,
The Final energy 67.870.72 kWh/month

200 mm
Insulation of Roof, U-value of 0.15 W/m2∙K
The Energy savings 5.74% W/m2∙K,
The Final energy 67,783.10 kWh/month
For each case, note the following three values: the resulting U-value in the measure
name Insulation of Roof, U-value of _____W/m2∙K, the Energy savings, and the Final
energy use in the Results bar into your Excel spreadsheet (do you see a pattern?).
Unfortunately, that’s not correct. Please try again. Repeat the steps again and ensure
that the Final Energy use (in the top left corner under File name) of your model shows
68,155.47kWh/Month at 100 mm insulation thickness. - The Energy savings 5.22%
W/m2∙K,

Adjusting glass properties

On the Energy tab select OFE08: Higher Performance Glass.

Change the U-value and SHGC to the following:

5.8 W/m2∙K and 0.8 SHGC (i.e. clear single glass)

the Energy savings -13.96%
the Final energy use 81,945.68 kWh/month
5.8 W/m2∙K and 0.6 SHGC (i.e. tinted single glass)
the Energy savings -4.68%
the Final energy use 75,276.48 kWh/month
3 W/m2∙K and 0.6 SHGC (i.e. clear double glazing)
the Energy savings -2.75%
the Final energy use 73,888.68 kWh/month
2 W/m2∙K and 0.45 SHGC (i.e. Low-e double glazing)
the Energy savings 4.93%
the Final energy use 68,367.43 kWh/month
For each case, note the following values: the Energy savings, and the Final energy use
in the Results bar into your Excel spreadsheet (do you see a pattern?).

Unselect the measure OFE08. Save the file.

On the Energy tab, select OFE04 – External Shading Devices.
Change the Annual Average Shading Factor (AASF) - Hệ số che nắng trung bình hằng
năm to the following values:

0.1
the Energy savings 2.10%
the Final energy use 70,399.34 kWh/month

0.2
the Energy savings 4.36%
the Final energy use 68,773.02 kWh/month

0.3
the Energy savings 6.61%
the Final energy use 67,156.68 kWh/month

0.4
the Energy savings 8.84%
the Final energy use 65,551.45 kWh/month

0.5
the Energy savings 11.06%
the Final energy use 63,958.61 kWh/month
For each case, note the Energy savings, and the Final energy use in the Results bar
into your Excel spreadsheet (do you see a pattern?).