Design Guideline of Office Building Facade with Self-Shading for Energy Conservation in Hot-Humid Climate

Abstract

This research aims at studying the solution for reducing energy consumption of an office building facade with self-shading applications. The four important design variables include orientations, extension self-shading length, Window to Wall Ratio (WWR) and automatic daylight dimmer. Using the simulation program called eQUEST-3.64. This study focuses on self-shading of facade with both single and multiple orientations with 4 variables including shading length, orientations, daylight dimmer, and applications comparison. For the shading length, the research results show that length of a self-shading facade affected the energy reduction most. Self-shading of 2.5 m can achieve the highest energy saving of wide WWR range from 20% - 100%. Also, the most feasible orientation of the self-shading facade is the east, while the north is not suitable for self-shading application. For the daylight dimmer, it can reduce the energy consumption by up to 12% when WWR is optimized. When comparing the self-shading with other applications including shading device and tilted wall, it is found that the self-shading at WWR 20% - 80% is the most efficient solution. Moreover, the energy saving extends greater if using self-shading facade is applied for multiple orientations. The results from this research are useful for architects who are interested in the facade design, and can effectively use self-shading facade to maximize energy conservation benefit.