Thermal Environments of an Office Building with Double Skin Facade

As a symbol of green architecture, double skin facade (DSF) represents a design which possesses many energy saving features, but due to the complexity of the system, the real performances and benefits have been difficult to predict. The objective of this study was to inform the applicability of DSFs, and contribute to the positive impacts of DSF designs. This study compared and contrasted energy savings in a temperate climate, where heating was the dominant energy strategy, and in a subtropical climate, where cooling spaces was the dominant issue. This paper focused on a university office building with a west facing shaft box window facade. The research method was a paired analysis of simulation studies which compared the energy performance of a set of buildings in two different climates. Simulation results showed a good agreement with measurements undertaken in the exiting building during a two-week period. The results specified that DSFs are capable of almost 50% energy savings in temperate and 16% in subtropical climates. Although these indicated DSFs are more suitable for temperate climates than warmer regions, the amount of energy savings in subtropical climates were also considerable. However, due to the costs of DSFs and potential loss of leasable floor area, investigations into other feasible ventilation options are necessary before final building design decisions are made.