ENERGY OPTIMIZATION

THROUGH BUILDING
ENVELOPE

PRESENTED BY
M. YASSER ARAFAT AND HAIDER
ABBAS
INTRODUCTION
It is a fact that buildings contribute significantly to the serious
environmental problems of the planet. The close connection
between a buildings energy-use and environmental-damage arise
because we still look for technical solutions to meet our
energy-related needs.
In doing so, we employ mechanical systems for solving climate-
related heating & cooling induced by "technically advanced"
building design.
It is time to think again about our design approach by
changing the way in which, a building can be created to meet the
occupants need for comfort but also require less energy to
run and consequently lower the impact on the environment.
The skin of the building accounts for most of the total
building budget and is a significant contributor to the cost by
up to 40%. Envelope design strongly affects the thermal comfort
of the occupants as well as the energy consumption in the
building. This requires the concern for treating the envelope as a
dynamic skin.
Thus, our presentation emphasis on how usage of different
techniques on the building skin can help optimizing energy. It
also shows how different factors in building design influence
the building performance.
This paper additionally describes the elements which are
responsible for heat gains in buildings and how their design can
respond in optimizing energy and calculating the amount of
energy that can be reduced with limitations of the site and design.
In earlier times, when energy was not available in form of electricity,
building designers had to rely on natural ways and means for
maximizing comfort inside the building envelope without using
mechanical ways of achieving comfort.
Now, mechanical devices have taken over the previous role of
providing comfort and as a result, huge amount of energy is
consumed to maintain internal conditions.
The building industry makes up a considerable fraction of worlds
energy consumption.
High energy consumption in the form of
Heating,
Cooling and
Artificially Lighting
Which inturn makes the building costly and has a significant effect on
the environment.
BUILDING ENVELOPE OR
SKIN
Refers to the exterior facade and is comprised of opaque
components and fenestration systems.
Opaque components include walls, roofs, and slabs in touch
with the ground, basement walls, and opaque doors.
Responsible for the Heat transfer in a building and also
heat loads of the building.
Fenestration system includes windows, skylights, ventilators
and glazed doors.
This requires the concern for treating the envelope as a
dynamic skin that can adapt to the weather and respond to the
needs of the occupant also creating a solution to reduce energy
consumption from, heating and cooling loads in buildings.
BRIEFLY LOOKING INTO
THE PAST
In earlier times, climate - conscious designs were the norm. Many
examples of earlier buildings are testimony to the simplicity and
common sense of passive designs. Despite being built without the aid of
architects and engineers, these buildings cleverly used sunlight and
natural breeze to cool their interiors.
Movable screens and curtains (the Diwan-e-khas in the Red Fort at
Delhi and Panchmahal at Fatehpur Sikri ) It is said that in summer there
were three sets of screens used, two of them of grass mats kept wet
by sprinkling of water. Heavy quilted curtains were suspended in
place of these screens in winter.
COMPACT SETTLEMENT PLAN:-
helps in reducing heat gain, allows mutual
shading by buildings. It reduces the area
of exposed surfaces and helps in lowering
the ambient air temperature surrounding
the building envelope by shading.
COURTYARD PLANNING:-
Internal courtyard with high building mass
COMPACT STREETS
all around it leads to induced ventilation,
lowering of temperatures by convective
cooling and natural lighting.
FAADE PROJECTIONS:-
Large number of projections like
sunshades and balconies acted as
effective shading device not only for the
openings but also for the walls. It results
in increased convective heat transfer to
air thus cooling the wall early in the
evening. When the ambient air-cools
down, the extended surface will also cool
down faster than a plain surface.
::STREET ELEVATION SHOWING FAADE PROJECTIONS
FLAT ROOFS WITH INSULATION LAYER:-
Roofs are constructed with stone slabs jointed with lime mortar.
Above that a layer of inverted earthen pots is applied to create a
layer for insulation. On the top of it a layer of lime mortar finished
with reflective smooth material like broken pieces of porcelain
pots of white wash is laid to reflect most of the sunlight falling on
it.
MATERIALS FOR CONSTRUCTION:-
The stone was used along with lime mortar. Lime mortar allowed
keeping lower temperatures inside the building. Stone helped in
creating time lag due to high thermal capacities.
EXTERNAL HEAT SOURCES FOR A
BUILDING
1. Direct radiation from sun
2. Radiation from the sky
3. Hot air conduction from outside
4. Re-radiation from ground and other surfaces
DESIGN FACTORS OPTIMISING
BUILDING ENERGY
BUILDING MASSING AND ORIENTATION : There is a trade-off between a
compact form that minimizes conductive heat transfer through the envelope
and a form that facilitates day lighting, solar gain, and natural ventilation.

DAYLIGHTING :A standard window typically provides daylight illumination

to a depth of about 1.5 times the distance between the floor and the top of
the window. Light shelves or other reflector systems can increase this
distance two or more times. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the
window is placed on the wall, the deeper the daylight penetration.
Daylight within a space comes from three sources :
The exterior reflected component includes ground surfaces,
pavement, adjacent buildings, wide window sills, and objects.
The direct sun/sky component
The internal reflected component is the daylight reflected off the
surrounding wall, ceiling, and floor surfaces.
LIGHT SHELVES : A light shelf is a horizontal
light-reflecting overhang placed above eye-level
with a window placed above it. This design,
which is most effective on southern orientations,
improves daylight penetration, creates shading
near the window, and helps reduce window
glare.

SKYLIGHTS : High-performance skylight designs

address these problems by incorporating translucent
insulating material, reflectors, or prismatic lenses to
reduce the peak daylight and heat gain while
increasing early and late afternoon daylight
contributions.
CLERESTORY WINDOW -

A clerestory window is vertical

glazing located high overhead.
A properly designed horizontal
overhang can effectively shade
south-facing clerestories from
direct sunlight.
SOLAR SHADING -
The most effective solar shading devices are exterior to the building
envelope. Shades and blinds located inside the building may be
effective at controlling glare, but are not effective in reducing the solar
gain entering the space. Consider light-colored surfaces on shading
devices such as overhangs, louvers, or light shelves. These light
surfaces can help bounce diffuse sunlight into the building. Diffuse
daylight is ideal for providing lighting without glare.

WINDOW SHADING OPTIONS

 GEOMETRY OF SHADING DEVICES WINDOWS FOR NORTH-SOUTH

East and west facing windows are the most

difficult to shade. Early morning and late
afternoon sun rays are approaching
perpendicular to these windows, causing
excessive heat gain and visual glare.
Use of combination of horizontal and vertical fins
is better to shade these windows. Lowering the
sun exposure by moving fins closer or making
them deeper angle can help reduce the solar
WINDOWS FOR EAST-WEST
penetration
WINDOW DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The choice of glazing materials for the various window orientations and
functions is critical for both thermal and visual comfort. Glazing
properties of windows are :
 CASE STUDIES
N

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF
INDIAN STUDIES, GURGAON:-
The project is completed by
Vinod Gupta .
Area of the building is 1500m.
It houses the administrative
offices, research facilities, SITE PLAN-AIIS
archives and libraries of the
AIIS.
ORIENTATION:-
North-South for lesser direct solar
radiation on building faces. The
staggered form was a deliberate
attempt to reduce solar gain
although it did increase the wall
area by one third of a straight
wall. AMOUNT OF AREA DAYLIT BY COURTYARDS
 DAYLIGHT:-
The space around the built mass is open
to sky which helps in circulation of air on
all sides. The AIIS has two sunken
courtyards that act as sun tubes and help
bring light in to the basement.

WINDOWS AND SHADING:-

On the east-west faces,
small slit-like openings near
the ceiling are filled with
glass brick to let in light
without heat and to improve
the distribution of light within
the room.
On the north-south faces
light shelves, in the form of
white ceramic tiled surfaces,
on top of the sunshades and
below the ventilator, increase
light penetration into the
interiors by reflecting the
external light on to the SESECTION-EAST-WEST WALL SECTION- NORTH-SOUTH WALL

ceiling.
FINDINGS :-
1. Staggered building form has resulted in increase of wall area
and heat penetration through it.
2. Large windows are designed for N-S and small windows for E-
W facades.
3. No shading is done for windows on E-W, glass bricks are
provided for distribution of light. Light shelves are used to provide
shade and increase daylight penetration on N-S wall.
4. Sunken Courtyards act as a medium to provide daylight in the
basements.
5. Polyurethane insulations are provided on walls to reduce heat
gain in the building.