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Merits Of Using Low U And G-Value Facades On Heating/cooling Demand And CO2 Emissions From Office Buildings

Wang, WB; (2018) Merits Of Using Low U And G-Value Facades On Heating/cooling Demand And CO2 Emissions From Office Buildings. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

Office buildings are responsible for a significant amount of energy usage and CO2 emissions, undesirable because of resource depletion and/or climate change. A possible strategy for reducing energy consumption and hence CO2 emissions might be to specify high performance facades since they should reduce heat losses in cold conditions and conductive heat gains in hot conditions. This project reports on an investigation on energy demand and CO2 emissions in office buildings incorporating facades with U-values between 1.2 to 2.6 W/m2K and g-values between 0.3 to 0.5, in four locations: London, Hong Kong, Caribou and Abu Dhabi which experience, respectively, cool, sub-tropical, cold and hot climates. Other variables considered include office orientation, long working hours, low internal gains and climate change. Energy demand was calculated using a steady-state method and the dynamic simulation tool, EDSL Tas. The results show that low U-value facades can reduce both annual energy demand and CO2 emissions in locations with predominantly cold or predominantly hot environments such as those found in Caribou and Abu Dhabi. In Hong Kong U-value has a marginal effect on energy usage but savings can be achieved by specifying low g-value facades. In London, low U-value facades only decrease annual energy demand if internal gains are also low. However, reducing energy use does not necessarily reduce CO2 emissions and if this is the goal a second strategy which emerges is to select facades which minimise energy demand when solar irradiations are low and maximising the use of, for example, solar energy and air/ground source heat pumps at other times. The work further suggests that Building Regulations should include a lower limit on U-value, a higher set point temperature in winter and more guidance on internal heat gains if energy use and CO2 emissions are to be reduced in the UK.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: Merits Of Using Low U And G-Value Facades On Heating/cooling Demand And CO2 Emissions From Office Buildings
Event: UCL
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Civil, Environ and Geomatic Eng
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10041863
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