Climate adaptive building shells for the future – optimization with an inverse modelling approach

Panel: 6. Innovations in buildings and appliances

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Bart B.J. de Boer, Energy Research Centre of The Netherlands, The Netherlands
Roel Loonen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Gerrit Jan Ruijg, Energy reseach Centre of the Netherlands ECN, Netherlands
Wim Kornaat, TNO Bouw en Ondergrond, Netherlands
Marija Trčka, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Jan Hensen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

Abstract

Most of the currently applied buildings are fairly static systems. Properties like insulation level, thermal mass and window area are kept constant throughout the year. Solar shading is often only regulated by hand with (indoor) lamellas. This static behavior of the shell often leads to discomfort and a high energy use for various installations which are needed to climatize the building.

In common design practice energy performance calculation programs or, in the best case, dynamic building simulation programs are used to optimize the building shell. Different options for façade constructions are compared to retrieve the best result in energy use. In the ongoingFACET project (Dutch acronym: ‘Adaptive future façade technology for increased comfort and low energy use’) a completely new, inverse modeling approach is chosen by asking the question: “What would be the ideal, dynamic properties of a building shell to get the desired indoor climate at variable outdoor climate conditions?” By reversing the design approach a set of ideal, but realistic building shell parameters is computed for different climate conditions, at various time steps (seasons, day-night, instantaneous).

The ‘ideal’ adaptive behavior makes it possible to maximize comfort and minimize energy. Technologies to reach this ‘ideal’ behavior are partly already available, in low or high tech solutions, such as smart glazings, variable vacuum insulation, insulating window covering, etc. However, further technology development is desired to fully meet the requirements.

The full paper describes results of TRNSYS simulations. It shows that adaptive building shells practically eliminate the heat demand and reduce the total heating and cooling demand by a factor 10, compared to state of the art new built offices, and a factor 3 compared to the very efficient passive house technology. The extremely low energy demand makes it easier to realize zero energy, or energy producing, buildings in the near future.