Investigation of the effect of building elements on environmental comfort in "nearly zero energy" office buildings via building energy simulation

In developed countries, between 15-20 percent of the primary energy consumption is used to meet the energy needs of office buildings. In this context, European Union legislation stated that new buildings built from 2020 should be designed as "nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB)". Today's applications are far from approaching nZEB, so innovative technologies need to be explored and implemented. This study, aims to investigate the effect of building envelope elements and energy efficient building systems being nZEB. The effect of building envelope elements on thermal comfort and energy efficiency are investigated at a selected office building in Dokuz Eylül University Tınaztepe campus via building energy simulation (BES) modeling. The study consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, the problem is defined and the aim, scope and method of the study are determined. In the second chapter, nZEB and related concepts are defined, the historical development, related regulations in Turkey and abroad, calculation methods and standards are examined. In the third chapter, sample nZEB cases from the literature are investigated. Selection criteria for cases include; being in a warm / temperate climate location and examining building envelope parameters with different scenarios. In the fourth chapter, the effect of the selected office building's envelope to make the building nZEB and improve the comfort of the building is investigated via BES. The simulation model is validated by indoor and outdoor measurements. In the first part of the improvement scenarios, passive systems are applied to the façade of the existing building with the aim to reduce the heating, cooling and lighting energy needs of the building, keep the thermal comfort within limits and reduce the number of discomfort hours. In the second part, the design aimed to meet nZEB criteria in addition to the aforementioned objectives, by redesigning the building facade and adding auxiliary systems. In the last chapter, the results are evaluated.