Effect of Building Envelope and Environmental Variables on Building Energy Performance: Case of a Residential Building in Mediterranean Climate

Abstract

At least 30% of the World’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions originate from buildings. Thus, design decisions should be well studied during the design phase of buildings following energy efficiency approaches. Environmental variables and properties of the building envelope are significant for energy efficiency. Thus, this study aims to investigate the potential of a residential building in the Mediterranean climate of İzmir, Turkey, regarding decreasing energy use and understanding the significance of architectural decisions during the design stage of buildings. Eight design scenarios were created by defining seven variables affecting energy consumption for room electricity, heating, and cooling. The first three scenarios focused on environmental-related variables, i.e., surrounding buildings, ground surface materials, and building orientation, while the last five scenarios investigated building envelope-related variables, i.e., thermal transmittance of the wall, floor and roof, glass, window frame, and door types, shading elements, and natural ventilation. Then, energy modeling and simulation are applied to test their potential for minimizing energy consumption. Research findings proposed that early architectural design decisions significantly influenced the case building’s energy performance. Thermal transmittance of the building components provided an annual energy saving of 22.4%, thus, was seen as the best-performed variable for the case building. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.