This paper analyzes the impact of roof covers on office building energy use for representative US climate zones. In particular, the study presented in the paper investigates the potential annual cooling energy use savings that roof covers could provide using whole-building simulation analysis to evaluate the performance of a 2-story office building in five US locations. Three parameters of the roof covers including their size, height, and transmittance, are considered in the analysis. The simulation results indicate that while roof covers had similar affects on buildings in all climate zones, their impact in reducing cooling energy usage is different and is more pronounced in cooler climates. Specifically, roof covers could potentially achieve cooling energy savings of up to: 25% in Houston, 33% in Atlanta, 31% in Nashville, 38% in Chicago, and 41% in Madison. Based on the detailed simulation analysis results, a simplified calculation model is developed to help the estimation of cooling energy savings as a function of the roof cover size, height, and transmittance.
- Advanced Energy Systems Division
Roof Cover Impact on Cooling Energy Use of Office Buildings
Krarti, M. "Roof Cover Impact on Cooling Energy Use of Office Buildings." Proceedings of the ASME 2014 8th International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the ASME 2014 12th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology. Volume 2: Economic, Environmental, and Policy Aspects of Alternate Energy; Fuels and Infrastructure, Biofuels and Energy Storage; High Performance Buildings; Solar Buildings, Including Solar Climate Control/Heating/Cooling; Sustainable Cities and Communities, Including Transportation; Thermofluid Analysis of Energy Systems, Including Exergy and Thermoeconomics. Boston, Massachusetts, USA. June 30–July 2, 2014. V002T10A015. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ES2014-6612
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