Haidar E. Al-Haidary
Published: 2018
Total Pages: 113
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"Energy conservation has become a priority for many governments and sustainable building standards such as LEEDS and Estidama. This is largely due to the high energy demand of buildings and the rising concerns over the impact fossil-fuel-generated electricity has on the environment. With buildings consuming up to 40% of global energy, the demand for energy-efficient buildings has steadily increased. This study employs the Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology namely Autodesk Revit and the energy modelling software, IES-VE, to analyze the effectiveness of passive design measures such as the building’s orientation and external envelope on its energy consumption. The analysis was performed on a case-study office building and both thermal imaging and the experimental measurement of the building envelope's U-value were conducted to assist the investigation. The study proves that with just basic knowledge about the HVAC system, the building can be modelled to within 3% of the actual consumption when comparing the colder months. The case-study building was also found to have an EUI of 357.8 kWh/m2/yr according to the model’s consumption, this is relatively lower than the actual EUI of the building of 411.2 kWh/m2/yr obtained using the building’s total estimated consumption. Furthermore, the total savings achieved by increasing the insulation levels of the external wall, adding 100 mm of insulation to the slab on grade, fitting high performance windows, and optimizing the orientation of the building, was 2.77%. The maximum savings achieved from any one efficiency measure, however, was about 1.6%, achieved when using high-performance glazing. It was also shown that although the case-study building had no thermal bridges, all thermal bridges detected on other buildings were about 2°C different from the insulated elements. The study also showed that the U-value calculated by the IES-VE software was 0.2354 W/m2K, differing by 31% when compared to the 0.339 W/m2K as measured in-situ. The study finally concludes that a modern office building gains little benefit from retrofit measures that minimize heat gain, however, the framework of BIM, IR camera, and in-situ U-value measurement proved effective."--Abstract.