Roof Design and Skylights Effects on the Energy Performance and Comfort of Low Energy Industrial Buildings
Abstract
In industrial or commercial buildings, the roof design and its opening systems are essential toward the thermal and lighting performance. Usually, roof coatings are designed to maintain waterproofing while the smoke evacuation is partially or totally ensured by the skylights installation. Yet, these components participate in increasing/decreasing roofs solar reflection, daylighting and may improve natural ventilation under operative conditions and passive cooling. The presence of these openings and the consideration of roofs solar reflectance studied here have a direct impact on the overall building thermal behavior. Indeed, the combination of solar gains and thermal losses depends on the design parameters (solar reflectance, opening size, etc.), climate and the season conditions. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of skylights and solar reflectance on building energy consumption, comfort and daylight factor through annual simulations. Coupled heat and mass transfer is computed using the coupled codes TRNSYS and CONTAM. In parallel, lighting simulation is performed using DIALux. Coupling the heat and mass transfer and lighting simulations is realized through daylight factors that determine the appropriate artificial lighting to be considered in the calculation procedure. The results are analyzed and discussed considering the parameters. The advantages of combined use of skylights and highly reflective roofs are detailed considering both of overall energy consumption and summer comfort.