The Impacts of Greenery Systems on Indoor Thermal Environments in Transition Seasons: An Experimental Investigation

Abstract

The impacts of greenery systems (GSs) on microclimate conditions and building energy performance have been frequently investigated using experiments and simulations during the past decades, especially in summer and winter. However, few studies have focused on the performance of GSs in transition seasons. The ambient weather conditions vary with great fluctuations during transition seasons, which may result in severe oscillations in indoor environments. To investigate the impacts of GSs on indoor environments, an experiment was conducted using a contrastive test platform, which consisted of two experimental rooms, one equipped with a GS and the other without, from 1 April 2019 to 31 May 2019 in Hunan, China. Both rooms were free-running. The experimental results showed that the GS had the ability to reduce the oscillations in the indoor environment. The oscillations in indoor dry-bulb temperature (DBT) and relative humidity (RH) were reduced by 39.3% and 28.8%, respectively. The maximum daily DBT and RH ranges were, respectively, cut down by 3.5 °C and 12.4%. The maximum reductions in external and internal surface temperatures were 29.5 °C and 9.4 °C, respectively, for the GS, while the average reductions were 1.6~4.1 °C and 0.2~1.3 °C, respectively, depending on the orientation of the surfaces. The operative temperature (OT) during the daytime on sunny days was also lowered by the GS. The differences in OT between the two rooms ranged from -1.8 °C to 8.2 °C, with an average of 1.0 °C. The GS can improve the indoor thermal comfort during transition seasons. The thermal dissatisfaction was decreased by 7.9%. This lengthened the thermal comfort time by 15% across the whole day and by 28% during the daytime. This indicates reductions in air-conditioning system operating times, leading to energy savings.