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This paper evaluates natural ventilation effectiveness in one fully dependent Air Conditioned-Educational Building in Depok to recommend potential passive cooling approaches toward user thermal comfort. This study involves building surveys to measure the temperature and humidity of three selected classrooms, A, B, and C, with varying configurations and capacities. Airflow simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is done under two conditions: open and closed doors. A set of parameters, which are room configuration, type of window, and ventilation strategy, are set to evaluate natural ventilation aspects. The site survey indicates that only one classroom with an area of 92 sqm facing to the southside is classified as efficiently warm (Room A). The simulation demonstrates that cross-ventilation only occurs when the door is opened. The parameters indicating shape, dimension, type, and area of natural ventilation matter, show that the building’s natural ventilation is ineffective in providing thermal comfort. This study recommends that the building’s natural ventilation be placed according to the direction of the airflow, adding vertical fin elements, and increasing the openings by more than 5% area from the floor area.

The B building sector contributes to 40% of the carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Several studies show that high-performance MAN (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri) buildings contribute to reducing carbon emissions. This study discusses the evaluation of natural lighting in educational buildings, namely the MAN (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri) Cimahi building. This research was conducted using direct survey methods via measuring and simulating the natural lighting using Sefaira. The simulation results show that natural lighting in the building does not meet lumination standards. This article concludes that the addition of a roof overhang, windowed areas, façade elements, and shading strategies are all factors that can affect natural lighting in the MAN (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri) Cimahi building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage architecture, which considers the local climate, building materials, and construction methods, can contribute to the energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings. Retrofitting strategies can be applied to existing buildings to improve their energy performance while maintaining or enhancing their thermal comfort. This study involved an analysis of the indoor environment status at the Yonsei University Stimson Hall (completed in 1920), a building on the former Yonhee College (now Yonsei University). The analysis included temperature and humidity measurements over a one-year period in four rooms with different usage schedules and occupant types. It was found that the number of occupants and the usage schedule influenced the temperature distribution in the rooms. In addition, the effects of the retrofitting strategies on the building energy consumption were investigated. It was verified that the improvement in windows and the application of roof-type photovoltaic systems resulted in annual energy savings of up to 90.46% compared with reference buildings. In conclusion, the findings demonstrate the influence of variables such as usage schedule, occupant type, and season on the indoor climate, as well as the potential benefits and drawbacks of retrofitting strategies on energy consumption and thermal comfort.

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The development of digital twins leads to the pathway toward intelligent buildings. Today, the overwhelming rate of data in buildings carries a high amount of information that can provide an opportunity for a digital representation of the buildings and energy optimization strategies in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. To implement a successful energy management strategy in a building, a data-driven approach should accurately forecast the HVAC features, in particular the indoor temperatures. Accurate predictions not only increase thermal comfort levels, but also play a crucial role in saving energy consumption. This study aims to investigate the capabilities of data-driven approaches and the development of a model for predicting indoor temperatures. A case study of an educational building is considered to forecast indoor temperatures using machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The algorithms' performance is evaluated and compared. The important model parameters are sorted out before choosing the best architecture. Considering real data, prediction models are created for indoor temperatures. The results reveal that all the investigated models are successful in predicting indoor temperatures. Hence, the proposed deep neural network model obtained the highest accuracy with an average RMSE of 0.16 °C, which renders it the best candidate for the development of a digital twin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The B building sector contributes to 40% of the carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Several studies show that high-performance MAN (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri) buildings contribute to reducing carbon emissions. This study discusses the evaluation of natural lighting in educational buildings, namely the MAN (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri) Cimahi building. This research was conducted using direct survey methods via measuring and simulating the natural lighting using Sefaira. The simulation results show that natural lighting in the building does not meet lumination standards. This article concludes that the addition of a roof overhang, windowed areas, façade elements, and shading strategies are all factors that can affect natural lighting in the MAN (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri) Cimahi building.

Currently, thermal comfort and indoor air quality are essential elements in designing modern and intelligent buildings or improving existing ones, so that they would provide proper indoor conditions. The article focuses on the thermal sensations of the students of Kielce University of Technology and determining whether the given parameters of the internal environment contributed to their well-being. 164 people aged 16 - 24 participated in the study, which was conducted with the use of a microclimate meter and questionnaires. It turned out that the temperature range from 19.3 °C – 27.6 °C is acceptable and comfortable for nearly 78% of people. As a result of further analysis, it turned out that the research group definitely prefers and feels better in colder temperatures.

Earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHEs) are widely used to reduce the indoor temperature and associated cooling energy demand of buildings. This study investigated the potential reduction in indoor temperatures via energy-efficient ventilation through EAHEs in an existing architectural campus building (ACB) with an energy-efficient renovated building envelope in the hot and humid climate of Karachi, Pakistan. The building information modeling (BIM) program Autodesk Revit was used to develop a virtual ACB BIM model. An EnergyPlus parametric analysis of the ACB BIM model in DesignBuilder facilitated quantification of the influences of operating parameters such as pipe installation depth and pipe diameter for EAHEs with similar total pipe lengths and air-exchange rates on the performance of the EAHEs during the cooling season. A 3 m deep and 0.1 m diameter pipe layout in open space significantly reduces indoor temperature via a specific duct layout in an exemplary ACB. The results show that a pipe diameter above 0.1 m is unsuitable because of the reduction in convective heat transfer due to the increase in the pipe's surface area and the decrease in pressure in the pipe. The findings of this study can be used to improve the indoor thermal comfort of buildings in climates with comparable properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving indoor thermal comfort is essential for productivity, especially in educational environments, and hence has recently attracted considerable attention. Phase change materials (PCMs) integrated into various building components have been used to improve the indoor temperature. In this study, the effectiveness of integrating macro-encapsulated BioPCMs into the walls and ceilings of lecture halls in an educational building was determined via simulation. The simulations considered a hot climate coupled with controlled night ventilation of 15 air change per hour for enhancing the indoor temperature. Using the EnergyPlus software, simulations were performed for different PCM melting temperatures (25, 27 and 29°C) and thicknesses. The PCM with a melting temperature of 27°C yielded a notable reduction (0.5–3.3°C) in the indoor temperature. Furthermore, increasing the layer thickness to 3.75 cm had little effect on the temperature, as indicated by the incomplete charging process during the night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been challenging for designers to identify the appropriate design parameters that would reduce building energy consumption while achieving thermal comfort for building occupants. This study aims to determine the most important architectural building design parameters (ABDPs) that can increase thermal comfort and reduce energy use in educational buildings. The effect of 15 ABDPs in an Australian educational lecture theatre and their variabilities on energy consumption and students' thermal comfort for each parameter were analysed using Monte Carlo (MC) techniques. Two thousand simulations for every input parameter were performed based on the selected distribution using the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) technique. Sensitivity analyses (SA) and uncertainty analyses (UA) were used to assess the most important ABDPs in terms of thermal discomfort hours and energy consumption. The study found that the ABDPs, such as cooling set-point temperatures and roof construction, significantly reduce the operative temperature by up to 14.2% and 20.0%, respectively. Consequently, these reductions could significantly shorten the thermal discomfort hours, thereby reducing energy consumption by 43.7% and 41.0%, respectively. The findings of this study enable building designers to identify which ABDPs have a substantial impact on thermal comfort and energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In hot climates, achieving a good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in existing buildings is important especially with climate change challenges as future heat waves will increase in frequency, duration, and intensity. In educational buildings, there is much more focus on the IEQ parameters and the interactions among them that need to be in line with the continuously changing learning environment. This study assesses the IEQ parameters (represented by noise, temperature and humidity) at three selected campus areas (lecture rooms of an administrative department building (LR), main hall of a management department building (MH) and a central library building (CL)) at the Al-Najaf Technical Institute (NTI), Al-Najaf City, Iraq, for the period from May to December 2019. A statistical analysis using a multi-linear regression model was performed to determine the relationship between the selected IEQ parameters and explain the noise level behavior as a function of the temperature and relative humidity. The research indicated that the noise levels and temperature values exceeded the maximum standard limits in all buildings reflecting the displeasing sound and heating quality within the studied areas, while the readings for relative humidity within each building environment complied with standards. Moreover, for both LR and MH buildings (R2 ≥ 0.8, significance F ≤ 0.01), the noise values were satisfactorily modeled by temperature and relative humidity highlighting the interactions between temperature, humidity and noise under consistent conditions. However, the results for the CL building (R2 = 0.6, significance F = 0.1) showed no relationship between the IEQ parameters, highlighting the fact that this building is exposed to unsteady conditions (an irregular number of people using this building during the daytime) resulting in a high variation of data measurements. The current results demonstrate that detailed modeling can be helpful to predict IEQ parameters depending on other known parameters in buildings. The results of the predictive model aligned with the directly measured data. Therefore, its performance is equally effective, but with a significant reduction in cost and time consumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHEs) are widely used to reduce the indoor temperature and associated cooling energy demand of buildings. This study investigated the potential reduction in indoor temperatures via energy-efficient ventilation through EAHEs in an existing architectural campus building (ACB) with an energy-efficient renovated building envelope in the hot and humid climate of Karachi, Pakistan. The building information modeling (BIM) program Autodesk Revit was used to develop a virtual ACB BIM model. An EnergyPlus parametric analysis of the ACB BIM model in DesignBuilder facilitated quantification of the influences of operating parameters such as pipe installation depth and pipe diameter for EAHEs with similar total pipe lengths and air-exchange rates on the performance of the EAHEs during the cooling season. A 3 m deep and 0.1 m diameter pipe layout in open space significantly reduces indoor temperature via a specific duct layout in an exemplary ACB. The results show that a pipe diameter above 0.1 m is unsuitable because of the reduction in convective heat transfer due to the increase in the pipe’s surface area and the decrease in pressure in the pipe. The findings of this study can be used to improve the indoor thermal comfort of buildings in climates with comparable properties.

Campus building was a place to accommodate various educational activities, which were both carried out indoors and outdoors. The environment, including the building and its exterior, provided thermal comfort that was influenced by the context, such as the mass of the facility, vegetation, and constructing envelope materials. The microclimate also influenced the environment, such as temperature, wind speed, and humidity. This study aimed to investigate the outdoor thermal comfort of campus building in urban area during summer, while also identifying the influential factors. This research referred to a case study, examining the thermal quality of the educational building environment using ENVI-met software, based on the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index as an indicator of outdoor thermal comfort, in Universitas Kebangsaan (UK). The results showed that the outdoor environment had low thermal comfort conditions during the day, as it also had different thermal satisfactory situations, due to differences in physical characteristics in each zone. This characteristics included, (1) The SVF determinant as indicators of the shading factor should be supported by the presence of vegetation and the use of pavement material, (2) Although the wind speed factor does not really affect the thermal comfort in the outdoor space, the interconnection between open gaps is likely to make breeze distribution in the area better. This study offered direction for campus planning, in order to maintain the optimal capacity of the natural environment, such as (1) Strategizing to create a better shadowing factor in the outer space, which was supported by controlling the use of pavement materials, (2) Directing the density of buildings by making open spaces more permeable, in order for better wind distribution in the area. From this study, the campus current conditions and future design development potential was also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been challenging for designers to identify the appropriate design parameters that would reduce building energy consumption while achieving thermal comfort for building occupants. This study aims to determine the most important architectural building design parameters (ABDPs) that can increase thermal comfort and reduce energy use in educational buildings. The effect of 15 ABDPs in an Australian educational lecture theatre and their variabilities on energy consumption and students’ thermal comfort for each parameter were analysed using Monte Carlo (MC) techniques. Two thousand simulations for every input parameter were performed based on the selected distribution using the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) technique. Sensitivity analyses (SA) and uncertainty analyses (UA) were used to assess the most important ABDPs in terms of thermal discomfort hours and energy consumption. The study found that the ABDPs, such as cooling set-point temperatures and roof construction, significantly reduce the operative temperature by up to 14.2% and 20.0%, respectively. Consequently, these reductions could significantly shorten the thermal discomfort hours, thereby reducing energy consumption by 43.7% and 41.0%, respectively. The findings of this study enable building designers to identify which ABDPs have a substantial impact on thermal comfort and energy consumption.

A comprehensive model was developed to analyse the performance of different air-conditioner (A/C) control strategies of an educational building in a hot summer environment. The main objective of the study was to evaluate thermal performance of the existing A/C control system to identify the causes of uneven temperature profiles in classrooms, and to assess alternative control systems in terms of their ability to achieve thermal comfort as well as optimal levels of energy consumption. The performance of four conventional (on/off) control strategies and two advanced control systems (namely Proportional and proportional-integral-derivative (PID)) was evaluated. An important distinctive characteristic of this study is how close the simulation represents reality in terms of building details, external and internal heat flow sources and mechanisms, explicit representation of controllers, and the integration approach of the building and its heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system in TRNSYS simulation environment. The resulting comprehensive database includes detailed time variation of temperature, humidity, cooling load, and thermal comfort indices corresponding to variable occupancy size and duration. Results showed that conventional A/C design practices may be deficient in certain occupancy cases and that control systems based on using only one thermostat in each building section are inadequate. Quantitative energy consumption for an individual-room control system capable of maintaining temperature and thermal comfort levels in all rooms within the design limits was determined. This provides a basis of cost estimates for solving the existing problem of uneven temperature distribution in classrooms and was used as a reference for assessing the energy cost of other more advanced control scenarios. Both Proportional and PID control systems are shown to be capable of maintaining temperature levels in all rooms within the design limits. Relative to the conventional individual-room control system, slightly more energy consumption (by 2.3%) for the Proportional system and slightly less energy consumption (by 2.3%) for the PID control systems were determined. Peak load reduction of close to 14% is achievable using the Proportional control system, and up to 8% is expected when using the PID. These peak load savings are relative to the individual-control system, which is 14% lower than the existing system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The existing stock of institutional buildings constructed before current thermal regulation codes is known to be high-energy consuming. To make energy savings, retrofitting solutions have to deal with important transformations of those buildings (e.g. envelope, energy systems) and with better-suited management solutions. Such technical solutions quite often neglect occupants' comfort. The present work aims to develop and implement an energy audit protocol to tackle simultaneously the questions of thermal comfort and energy efficiency for higher education buildings. Our transverse approach allowed us to achieve a complementary view of the building under examination, including its operating conditions. At any rate, capturing the full complexity of a building-system (building energy devices, management strategies, and occupancy and behaviours impacts) requires a broad perspective and points to the limits of key-in-hand audits and solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• To encourage students to perform different activities and interact in open spaces. • To evaluate indoor and outdoor environment in the Faculty of Physical Education. • Significant temperature reductions of 1.5–4.9 K are achieved for indoor spaces. • Significant reduction in the PET for inner courtyard temperatures with an average temperature difference of 6.56 °C. • To increase tree density and courtyard shading (50% shading) inside courtyards. Thermal comfort in university buildings is a critical issue since a high level of indoor and outdoor thermal comfort is required to encourage students to perform different activities and interact. This study aims to evaluate and improve student thermal comfort inside educational building spaces. First, we evaluated the indoor and outdoor environment in the Faculty of Physical Education, Assiut University, located in a hot, arid climate, based on a field measurement and questionnaire survey. Then, the ENVI-met software was used to employ three design scenarios to achieve student thermal comfort enhancement inside the inner courtyard. The building used a passive strategy (trees, semi-shading 50%, hybrid between trees and semi-shading 50%) with courtyard ratios (H/W) equal to 1.6, and the measurements were conducted during the post-occupancy stage in the academic year. Furthermore, the questionnaire survey was studied using 116 responses from a thermal sensation vote (TSV) evaluation. The results suggested increasing vegetation and providing more shading increased thermal comfort by 34% and 28% in the inner courtyard, respectively. Significant temperature reductions of 1.5–4.9 K are achieved for indoor spaces due to the interaction between buildings and the climate factors such as air temperature (Ta) and relative humidity by using a passive strategy of hybrid between trees and semi-shading 50%. The base case concluded that high heat stress occurred inside the courtyard space with a physiological equivalent temperature (PET) above the acceptable range with similar results from TSV. In addition, there was a significant reduction in the PET for inner courtyard temperatures based on the ENVI-met model with an average temperature difference of 6.56 °C compared to the base case due to increased tree density and courtyard shading (50% shading). Thus, increasing shading and trees density inside courtyards of education buildings is recommended, especially with an H/W ratio of 1.6 on north-south axis orientation that could be applied in hot arid climate universities of Upper Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• PCM application as a passive retrofit system on an educational building was analyzed. • PCM application to the shading system resulted in a cooling energy savings of 44%. • Different PCM melting temperatures did not affect the energy savings. • PCM shading applications are more economical than conventional shading. • Further research to reduce heating energy consumption is needed for shading. To improve the energy performance of existing buildings, retrofits may improve the energy efficiency or decrease energy demand. Many studies have been conducted on passive retrofit systems using phase change materials (PCMs). In this study, the objective is to analyze the energy performance and thermal comfort of an educational building with a shading system in South Korea. When PCMs were applied to the shading system, the cooling energy consumption decreased by 44%, and the number of hours of thermal comfort improved by 34%. The melting temperature of the PCM did not play a significant role in reducing the building energy consumption when the PCM was applied to the shading system. In the economic aspect, although the PCM shading application requires more additional investment, the simple payback period (SPP) of the PCM shading application is lower than the building without PCM. Therefore, the PCM shading application to A Hall is a successful retrofit that has more energy efficiency and thermal comfort, and has a lower SPP. However, the increase in heating energy consumption due to the shading application in winter could not be overcome. This implies that further research on the shading system in cold climates are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]