EVALUATION OF PASSIVE DESIGN FEATURES ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN HDB FLATS

Abstract

The advancement of building and construction technology in today’s era sows much convenience and reaps many benefits in myriad aspects but has thus led to a heightened importance on energy conservation.

Residential buildings accounts for approximately one-fifth of the electricity end-use in Singapore, but energy efficiency in this context has simply not been emphasised enough upon. HDB flats account for a good 76 percent of housing in Singapore and airconditioning, the highest component of energy consumption for most HDB flats, accounts for approximately 30 percent of the electricity use.

Three key passive design features that influence on energy consumption for airconditioning have been identified as the size of windows, types of window-glass and building orientation.

Giving consideration to different usage pattern in a typical Singapore HDB household, 2 types of user profiles were defined and energy simulation runs were conducted to test the effects of varying the three key passive design features identified.

Interviews were conducted with experts in this field to have a better understanding on applications of the variation of these design features in Singapore HDB flats.

A total of 48 simulations were done, while varying 2 types of user profiles, 2 predefined window sizes, 3 types of window-glass, and 4 different building orientations.

Results suggests that the use of window-glass with better thermal performance does not produce significant cooling energy savings based on the usage pattern in a typical HDB household setting. It was also found that increase in window size leads to more than proportionate increase in cooling demands and that the east façade of the building receives more heat than the west façade. In a building oriented at 0⁰ azimuth, the Southwest room appears to consume the least amount of cooling energy.