| As demand for fossil fuel increases and availability decreases, energy consumption reduction in building becomes critical component of a city's comprehensive energy strategy. When addressing energy efficiency in a building, it is necessary to account for local climate first and foremost to define the thermal comfort condition. Passive cooling and natural ventilation, when combined with appropriate window ratios and sun shading strategies, can reduce mechanical system energy demands significantly. This research presents a workflow that integrates adaptive thermal comfort, natural ventilation and envelope optimization to develop a pre-policy statement as a guideline for energy efficient office buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh.;First, a common practice baseline model was developed from data collected from energy audits to gain a clear understanding of the energy consumption in typical existing office buildings in Dhaka. Adaptive Comfort Algorithms from EN15251 and ASHRAE 55 were used to calculate variable set-points related to running mean and monthly mean of the outdoor temperature respectively. Variable set-points have been used in EnergyPlus AirflowNetwork to determine the potential energy saving of adaptive comfort control strategy of HVAC equipment and for encouraging natural ventilation envelope strategies to create comfortable indoor environment in the local climatic context of Dhaka.;A method of envelope optimization was developed by combining an optimization tool with a building energy simulation tool to determine the optimum solution for improving building envelope performance. GenOpt, a generic optimization program, has been coupled with EnergyPlus for this optimization. Then, the values of envelope and glazing parameters for optimum energy performance were determined using this automatic optimization method. The reduction of a building's energy consumption was also addressed with regards to capital and operational costs. An economic analysis was performed to establish a correlation between energy saving and capital cost increase associated with the energy-efficient envelope measures.;This research shows that significant reductions in energy consumption are possible with the application of fundamental, but not complicated, changes to local building codes and establishment of a comprehensive energy conservation code. |
