Energy performance tradeoff assessment for varying design parameters in office buildings

ABSTRACT

Energy performance and heat release from buildings can differ with variations in envelope and operational parameters. This study presents an evidence-based assessment for different study locations in Japan including Sapporo, Tokyo, and Osaka. The analysis used a comparative approach using a reference energy performance simulation model for large office buildings using EnergyPlus to assess the impact of design variations on building performance. The analysis included 66 simulations with 10 design parameters and 2 construction types. The study coupled energy performance with heat release from the building towards outdoor environments since heat release can influence the local thermal environments. Desirable tradeoffs were observed for timber constructions by increasing the cooling setpoint by 1°C reduced cooling and heating energy use by 10.7% and 11.9% in Sapporo, 8.5% and 22.7% in Tokyo, and 6.8% and 24.4% in Osaka. Similarly, cooling and heating peak loads were reduced by 5.9% and 2.4% in Sapporo, 5.4% and 2.0% in Tokyo, and 6.5% and 5.2% in Osaka. Additionally, nighttime heat release also decreased by 12.4% and 13.6% in Sapporo and Tokyo, and 6.2% and 5.7% in Osaka for concrete and timber constructions. The study provides early-stage design support for energy-efficient buildings and improved local thermal environments.

KEYWORDS:

• energy efficiency
• energy use
• peak loads
• heat release
• building design

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the Mitsubishi – Global KAITEKI Center for the project funding. This material is also based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research’s Urban Integrated Field Laboratories research activity, under Award Number DE-SC0023520. We would also like to thank the members of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University and Southwest Integrated Field Laboratory (SW-IFL) for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution

Deepak Amaripadath: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, software, data curation, visualization, writing – original, writing – reviewing and editing. Edwin Alejandro Ramírez-Aguilar: software, visualization, writing – reviewing and editing. Lisandra Fachinello Krebs: software, visualization, writing – reviewing and editing. David Sailor: conceptualization, methodology, validation, supervision, writing – reviewing and editing.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Global KAITEKI Center; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research’s Urban Integrated Field Laboratories [grant number DE-SC0023520].