EFFECTIVENESS OF SOLAR ATTIC FANS IN A GREEN SITE OFFICE

Abstract

Living at a time when there is great awareness of energy problems facing the world, it is now widely accepted that the growth in energy consumption cannot continue indefinitely, as there is a limit to the world reserves of fossil fuel. However, air-conditioner, which is one of the major energy-consuming equipments in a site office, plays an important role in ensuring thermal comfort of the occupants in Singapore’s hot and humid climate. Thus, an appropriate energy conservation strategy would be required to not only ensure significant savings in energy, but also improves the occupant’s thermal comfort, thus enhancing the comfort and productivity of the workforce. In view of the issues as mentioned above, a potential solution would be the implementation of solar attic fan, which would ensure that humidity and temperature levels would never reach those critical activation levels. It can properly ventilate the attic, helping to equalize the interior and exterior temperatures, so as to lessen the cooling load required. In addition, a site office is often constructed using metal containers, resulting in insufficient ventilation and air exchange. This results in high humidity levels in the office from everyday activities, thus causing thermal discomfort. Moisture would also migrate through the ceiling towards the roof, and can saturate the insulation, thus reducing its functionality. However, with a solar attic fan, it can help to reduce relative humidity, which is one of the parameters in determining thermal comfort, to an optimal level. As such, the objectives of this research would be to examine the feasibility of using solar attic fan as an energy conservation measure, and at the same time ensuring effective removal of moisture and heat from the attic of a site office, thus providing thermal comfort to the occupants. To realize these objectives, experiments were conducted on a green site office, and thereafter, surveys questionnaires were distributed among the occupants, as perceptions of thermal comfort can be subjective. The results obtained from these research methodologies supported the hypothesis for this study, therefore validating the effectiveness of solar attic fan in energy-savings and removing both heat and moisture from the attic, hence contributing to an acceptable thermal environment for its occupants in a green site office. Keywords: Solar attic fan, site office, thermal comfort, energy savings