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Fully air-conditioned atria have become increasingly popular in architecture design due to their appealing aesthetic and iconic features to general public. In certain regions of China, climate diversities in winter (freezing-cold) and summer (warm-humid) are huge. Energy consumptions due to air-conditioning of atria in these regions are enormously high. Thus, their corresponding energy managements without compromising the indoor thermal comfort are extremely challenging. The geometric configuration of the atrium has preliminary and significant impacts on the indoor environment and further influences the energy consumption. The impacts of atria’s geometric configuration on indoor thermal condition and energy consumption under highly diversified climate conditions in China are studied in this paper. A fully air-conditioned enclosed atrium with square plane and cross-section is considered in this research. Atria with different section aspect ratio (SAR) and skylight sizes are investigated with a combination of (1) field measurements and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for temperature distribution and (2) energy simulations for the corresponding energy performance. Case studies for the temperature distribution profile for atria with different SAR and the quantitative correlations between atria’s SAR and its energy performance are presented. Optimum skylight size based on the objective function to minimize the annual energy consumption will also be reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An extended Gebhart–Block model for large space buildings is proposed in this paper, which is used to predict the vertical temperature distribution of hybrid ventilation. Natural ventilation coupled with air-conditioning is described with a mathematical model. The indoor thermal environment formed by the air-conditioning and the natural ventilation can also be conducted for the potential analysis and optimal use of the natural ventilation. Experiments were carried out in an atrium building in Shanghai Research Institute of Building Sciences. This paper describes aforementioned model, and it is found that the calculation results implying this model agree well with the measurement data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents the field-measured energy performance of two common types of daylight-linked lighting control systems, continuous dimming and automatic on/off installed in two existing large atrium spaces located in Canada. The daylighting performance was evaluated based on the daylight contribution to the indoor illuminance and the amount of electrical lighting displaced by daylighting via the daylight-linked lighting control systems. Measured daylighting contribution to the space indicates that significant lighting energy savings can be achieved in atrium spaces if the daylight-linked lighting control system is appropriately selected, installed and commissioned throughout its existence. Results extrapolated from measurements collected during summer and winter indicate that as installed, the continuous dimming lighting control system provides 46% annual savings in electrical lighting consumption, while the automatic on/off saves between 11and 17% in lighting energy. These savings account for 68% of the lighting energy consumed during main occupancy for the continuous dimming system, and 31.5% for the automatic on/off. Operation irregularities such as a reduced dimming linearity and an incorrect adjustment of the phases of the dimming control system, as well as the inadequate location of the photocell controlling the automatic on/off lighting system, the improper maintenance of the skylight during winter and the oversizing of the lighting system reduced the energy efficiency of the lighting control systems by 30–65%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]