Chapter 2: Methodology
2.2 Assessment Methods
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b) Qualitative Analysis:
Qualitative research focuses on processes and meanings through the use of in- depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation (Creswell, 2009). Rather than relying on quantitative data, qualitative research employs description approaches to produce meaning and insight about the topic under study.
Case study: statics are used to identify the problem and the characteristics of the building. This data is important in this study because of the concentration of the area. All factors were considered in the site visit. The qualitative method is based on observation, description, and interpretations of the experience of people in the area. The energy performance of the high-rise residential building will be investigated and examined based on this method.
The developer of the building (360 community): The main developer for Marina square is described clearly in (Chapter 4); The developer website and formal pages helped for collecting data about the building such as the units number and the type of glass used, and the feedback of the residents about the resources and the environment. It provides the images and the data used to build up the case study.
21 the air conditioning system, the equipment, and the building's thermal performance);
Finally, the output variables for systematic feedback, such as cooling and heating load against the energy consumption (Aleksandar & Francesco, 2021).
The forward modeling approach is used to enter parameters, structures, and systematic characteristics, allowing scientists to predict the output parameters. The reverse simulation method involves entering parameters and pre-programming energy consumption data. Then we can fine-tune the system parameters and construct the system form. The development of building energy consumption analysis can be summarized as a series of processes.
Different scenarios were used to evaluate the energy performance of the high residential building facades, the data on the problem size will be obtained through a survey with different experts who have a great variety of experience and best practices in the UAE such as building designers, façade engineers, technical control specialist, and occupant. Data collection will be investigated and analyzed using the most suitable software program Energy Plus. Meanwhile, the case studies data such as the plans, elevations, sections, and the used material details were collected from the municipality of Abu Dhabi through the archive department. Moreover, the energy data and the Air Conditioning (AC) and electricity consumptions were collected from the users from the official monthly bills of the residents. Therefore, several turns were applied to achieve accurate results for the existing case model with various variables mutations. In this research, the survey and simulations are used as assessment methods.
2.2.1 Simulation Tool (Energy Plus)
There are a lot of Building Energy Simulation (BES) applications that are widely employed by designers and architects to implement such designs including BLAST, DOE-2.1E, Energy Plus, eQuest, and TRNSYS (Roetzel, 2014). Energy Plus is an open- source, BEM software and has been considered the first choice for modeling the energy performance of buildings by researchers, engineers, and architects (Blanco, 2016). The development of Energy Plus is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Building
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Technologies Office. This program can be used for simulating energy consumption from lighting, HVAC, and plug-and-process loads in buildings. Energy Plus is a console- based program and thereby processes text-based inputs and returns the results in different text formats. Therefore, Energy Plus can be linked with, Autodesk Revit, Design
Builder, and other Energy Simulators. These software packages can be used to create the geometry of the building and extract the required Energy Plus Input Data File for
simulation. However, all manipulation in Energy Plus, including changes in material properties, running time, and thermostat setting, must be manually applied by a user (Blanco, 2016).
The Energy Plus software is a great application for measuring energy
consumption and analysis application. Users must enter the location, weather, building envelope information, inside usage (including personnel, lights, and equipment), basic HVAC working settings, and cold or heat supply parameters. Then building energy simulation analysis can be conducted on the targeted building for the set period.
(Aleksandar & Francesco, 2021).
Heat transmission in the room through windows is caused by a combination of inside and outside temperature and solar emissions. When sunlight passes through the window, a portion of it is transmitted; another portion enters as a short wave through the window and becomes the heat form. In the heat balance equation, Energy Plus ignores shifting heat volume. Heat transport is considered to be one-dimensional, with the inner and outside surfaces of the glass being isothermal. Meanwhile, absorbed shortwave radiation is assigned to the inner and outer surfaces in proportion. Conduction heat gain, solar radiation heat, people heat, equipment heat, air infiltration heat, and fresh air heat gain are the different types of heat transfer into a room. The heat balance module is used by Energy Plus to compute cooling and heating (Oesterle, 2001).
In addition, users must enter relevant building information in the IDF editor (the Energy Plus input file), such as house building, human resources, and HVAC systems Data from the IDF editor's dataset can be copied and pasted into the input file. Users can create a new item in the module corresponding to the information bar. The newly entered
23 data is then selected, and the name and specific values are filled in. To obtain accurate results, the information must be correct. Users run the EP-Launch after completely editing the input file, then view the error file and modify it repeatedly. Initially, the exact process for using the Energy Plus tool is setting Information in the input files, like
building location and weather information. Then, users configure lighting equipment and personnel, followed by an overall description of the building’s needs, including building size, outside walls, inner walls, roof, windows, doors, floors, ceilings, and other diverse features, in addition to the regional temperature and humidity control.
Finally, the operating parameters of the air conditioning system are determined.
For building zoning, numerous Surface building elements, such as heat transmission surfaces and thermal storage surfaces, form an overall architectural concept. As a result, due to various orientations, two close regions using a set of air-conditioning might be zoned in distinct space. The zoning idea is based on function, temperature setting, and solar radiation heat gain.
During calculation, Energy Plus needed to maintain the same temperature setting in every hour, day, and zone. Because the software's foundation is based on heat
balancing, a building can be separated into one heat zone to estimate its load.
Furthermore, in building construction modeling after zoning the construction, the researcher categorizes the building surfaces based on temperature management; direct sunlight and wind-exposed areas must be determined. By establishing analogous
surfaces, we may minimize the amount and complexity of surfaces in input files. In a hot zone, any of the same created surfaces can be defined as an equivalent surface. It is the same size as all of the heat storage surfaces combined. The same idea applies to
windows and shades. This basic building information is based on the ASHRAE Guide.
Many aspects can influence the editing of interior space data for the indoor load,
including staff, lighting, equipment, air infiltration, and ventilation form. In Energy Plus, the load can be characterized by design load, peak load, and the corresponding timetable.
The last process is inputting an AC System; although some third-party software has a friendly and easy-operation interface, they lack complete air conditioning system
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data. For setting the economic Factor: After entering the energy rate, Energy Plus can determine not only building energy consumption but also expenditures such as monthly service fees, energy prices, basic cost, power factor cost, block fees, and other charges.
The data will be tested in the Energy Plus software for this research to evaluate the energy performance of double skin façade for high-rise residential buildings. Based on the literature review, the best-recommended values were tested for the cavity between the double skin layers and for the glass type and glass layers. The selected values are shown in Table 3, which includes the data and the sources used in the analysis.
Table 3: Data and sources used in the analysis (Hashemi, 2010; Ashour, 2014).
Type Source Year Range of selection
The Cavity between the glass layers
Literature Review and previous studies
2019-2022 0.8 to 1 m
The glass type of each sheet of layer
Literature review, Glass companies and with different U-values
2022 0.5 to 1 W/m2. K
The methods used in the analysis were selected based on previous theories and studies. The steps of the simulation process are summarized below:
- Model the building with its properties – add all the details for the buildup model – apply the systems and the energy consumption for the model.
- Develop a table to include the different variables and note down the results to be compared to the original results for the main base case.
- Finalize the result and output with the best energy performance for the final model and write the recommendation based on the results.