Effect of Building Form on Daylight and Energy Efficiency for Educational Building in Composite Climate
Abstract
Adequate daylight design with balanced energy consumption is the prime concern of architectural principles, especially in educational buildings. It not only reduces the building’s operational energy demand but also enhances pupils' learning productivity and reduces mental stress by maintaining a healthy indoor environment. This paper presents a parametric simulation approach using the Rhinoceros’ Grasshopper tool to investigate the visual comfort and energy efficiency of a school building situated in the semi-arid composite climate of Jaipur (India). Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI), Daylight Autonomy (DA), Uniformity Ratio, Average Lux, Cooling Energy Demand (CED), and Heating Energy Demand (HED) are assessed as performance indicators with nine different building forms in each orientation. The building forms include single and double line I shapes, L, U, square, hexagonal, rectangle, H, and circle shapes, and their effectiveness on building visual and energy performance has been investigated. This research demonstrates that optimal building form enhances the UDI and uniformity ratio by 35.83% and 293%, respectively, and reduces cooling and heating energy demand by 22.82% and 23.93%, respectively. This analysis provides decision-making support for architects and engineers for building form design in the early design stage to ensure visual and energy performance.
Keywords
Visual comfort, Cooling and heating energy demand, Building form, Rhinoceros’ grasshopper