ENERGY IMPACT OF COMMERCIAL-BUILDING ENVELOPES IN THE SUBTROPICAL CLIMATE

Existing commercial buildings are surveyed and categorized based on th e construction characteristics of their envelope. The envelope heat ga in and the resulting cooling load demand are analysed with the aid of energy simulation tool DOE-2.1D. The concept of the overall thermal tr ansfer value (OTTV) is applied to study the association of the envelop e designs with the cooling requirement, and a modified approach in ass essing the effective envelope heat gains under a sub-tropical climate is proposed. The predicted OTTV gives a good indication of the thermal performance of the envelope under a sub-tropical climate. The energy impact and possible range of cooling-load demands, for various envelop e designs, under similar internal characteristics and cooling system, are identified. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.