The effect of architectural fac¸ade design on energy savings in the student dormitory

Abstract

There are many reasons for adequate use of natural light inside students' dormitories. Intensity of light required for student activities and temperature inside the rooms are the major factors for an occupant's comfortable work and life. Design of building fac¸ades has a significant impact both on the use of natural light and energy consumption. In this paper, a comparative analysis of student rooms with different orientations and different fac¸ade designs was performed in order to investigate what type of refurbishment in the fac¸ade is necessary. The goal of the refurbishment was generation of optimal thermal and lighting comfort for students' work with maximal energy saving for a new student dormitory in Nis, Serbia. An analysis of annual energy consumption of the newly designed student dormitory and proposed replacements on the exterior fac¸ade was performed by using the software EnergyPlus. Based on the energy consumption analysis it could be concluded that significant energy savings would be possible by upgrading the shading devices across the width of the window. In other words, changing the fac¸ade of the dorm could generally improve students' comfort, while the energy costs would be reduced.