Building envelope Number (Real)

Building Services Engineering 4th or 5th Edition , See energy Economics Chapter 2.
Energy design targets may be proposed that include uses for heating,
ventilation, hot-water services, lighting and electrical power. The total demand
target T for a building is assessed by adding the thermal demand target TT to the
electrical demand target TE in the CIBSE Building Energy Code (CIBSE, 1981).
In heated and naturally ventilated buildings, the rate of heat loss is related to the
floor area by the dimensionless building envelope number B:

B.Eng notes on Building Envelope Number

Building Envelope Number

The particular difficulty of relating the rate of heat loss through the fabric of a building, to the
floor area has been overcome by the sue of dimensionless parameter known as the building
Envelope Number B. Thids takes the form

B = (Aw/Af + k1/nf + k2.hc)

BEN relates building geometry to floor area.

Insert Sketch (See S1 on back of Overall Sketch Design Process Handout 25.09.12)

Area of floor = total area of treated Floors (m2)

Aw: Area of vertical wall surfaces including windows & openings (m2)
Nf: Number of storeys ( - )
Hc: floor to ceiling height (m)
k1: Constant for a particular building structure type (-)
k2: Constant for a particular building structure type (m to power of minus1)

Example a warehouse is being renovated to include a mezzanine floor as follows: find the
change in B.E.N. when k1 = 0.5 & k2 = 0.1

Af = 12x25 = 300m

Ware house dims:

12m x 25m x 8m high

for the single storey arrangement:

Aw = 2(12x8) + 2(8x25) = 192 + 600 = 592m
Af = 300m
Nf = 1
Hc = 8
Therefore B = 592/300 + 0.5/1 + (0.1x8)
B = 1.97 + 0.5 + 0.8
B = 3.27

For the Mezzanine arrangement:

Aw = 592m
Af = 600m
Nf = 2
Hc = 4
k1 & k2 are the same, so

B = 592/600 + (0.5/2) + 0.1x4

B = 0.985 + 0.25 + 0.4
B = 1.63