Impact of Building Integrated Rooftop Greenhouse (BiRTG) on Heating and Cooling Energy Load: A Study Based on a Container with Rooftop Greenhouse

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing interest in sustainable agricultural methods aimed at reducing energy consumption and mitigating environmental impacts. Among these methods, the integration of rooftop greenhouses into buildings has emerged as a promising solution for urban agriculture, offering various advantages such as energy-saving effects on both the host building and the rooftop greenhouse, improved resource use efficiency, enhanced food security, and reduced environmental impacts. However, there has been limited research on the energy-saving impact of rooftop greenhouses under different conditions and detailed heat transfer analysis based on actual buildings and rooftop greenhouses. The objective of this study is to investigate the energy benefits of building-integrated rooftop greenhouses by evaluating various operating scenarios for both the building and the greenhouse. A container and upper rooftop greenhouse structure were constructed, and building energy simulation models for the target system were developed. Four different operating scenarios for the greenhouse and three different operating scenarios for the building were compared. Depending on the operating scenarios, the total energy loads of the container and RTG were reduced by 18.4% to 24.7% and 0.7% to 6.3%, respectively. The findings of this study can be utilized for the development of optimized greenhouse control strategies.