PERFORMANCE STUDY OF SHADING DEVICES AT ZERO ENERGY BUILDING (BCA)

Abstract

With growing emphasis on green buildings globally, Building and Construction Authority (BCA) embarked on a master plan to research and develop Singapore’s first Zero Energy Building (ZEB) that would add value to the global energy efficient buildings landscape. ZEB serves as an experimental ground to determine the effectiveness of the different green technologies. Through the use of these technologies, it takes advantage of natural ventilation and lighting, and hence reduces energy consumption. In particular, external shading system, which is one of the passive systems, forms the focus of the research study. The effectiveness of external shading panels on the thermal and visual performance is examined. Five different configurations of horizontal and vertical shading panels with different shading depth were put to test. It aims to find out the best configuration which produces the most optimal result in improving the thermal and visual performance of the indoor space. As such, objective and perceptive studies were performed to determine the impacts of external shading panels on the mentioned performance mandates. Specifically, field measurements and survey questionnaire were conducted to collect data and learn the perceptions of the respondents on the thermal and visual performance for different shading configurations respectively. However, the shading from the trees has significantly hinders the process of data collection and in turn affects the accuracy of the results. As such, the effectiveness of the shading device could not be strongly concluded. Hence, recommendations were listed to allow continuity for further research in this aspect.