STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF VERTICAL GREENING OF ZERO ENERGY BUILDING AT BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY ACADEMY

Abstract

This dissertation adopted both field measurements and energy simulation program, aiming to find out the effectiveness of vertical greenery system and rooftop garden if they are implemented in Singapore’s context. The main objective is to determine the thermal benefits and energy consumption reduction that vertical greenery and rooftop garden is able to achieve. Three different systems and one rooftop garden is installed in zero energy building (ZEB) to evaluate the thermal performance. On the other hand, three scenarios are being simulated using TAS program to learn about the energy reduction. Surface temperature, ambient temperature, heat flux and solar irradiance are collected during the field study while annual energy consumption, cooling load, mean radiant temperature and air temperature are simulated on a hypothetical ZEB. The thermal resistance of external wall, vertical greenery systems and rooftop garden are estimated using the data given by ZEB. The research has proved that the implementation of both the vertical greenery system and rooftop garden are able to bring down the surface temperature and ambient temperature at ZEB. In addition, the simulated results have shown potential savings on energy consumption and minimizing of cooling load. The highest surface temperature reduction is achieved in vertical greenery cage system whereas the simulated results show that the panel system should be the most effective. Hence, if more suitable plants are chosen for the panel system, the capability of bringing more significant benefits to the environment is promising.