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Solar thermo-visual gain optimization of a building using a novel proposed nature-based green system

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Abstract

Nearly buildings consume 40% of the world’s total energy. With the constant push to reduce energy consumption in buildings, a novel nature-based system is proposed for use in buildings. This novel solution is a controllable system that could control solar heat gain, solar illuminance while enhance urban green space and produce local organic vegetables with low water consumption. To assess the system performance, a paired comparison was made in two similar rooms, one with the novel system installed outside its window and the second as the control treatment. The experimental results show that the maximum recorded indoor air temperature and solar thermal gain reductions due to the system installation were 2.9 °C and 61%, respectively. However, it could also decrease useful daylight illuminance up to 22.9%. Therefore, to achieve a stable optimum thermo-visual comfort, the room indoor temperature reduction and useful daylight illuminance were optimized using NSGA-II (Elitist Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm). The novel system and building nexus provides optimum thermo-visual comfort and approximately 8 kg m−2 per month organic vegetables for building residents. Finally, we proposed a performance flowchart for the transient control of the passive cooling and the natural daylight illumination of the room.

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Abbreviations

B :

Window width

I :

Illuminance level/lux

k :

Thermal conductivity/W (m K)−1

t :

Time/s

T :

Temperature/°C

V :

Velocity/m s−1

x :

Displacement/m

av:

Available

ave:

Average

max:

Maximum

Opt:

Optimum

ρ :

Density/kg m−3

GH:

Green house

LAI:

Leaf area index

O.F:

Objective function

PCR:

Plants coverage rate

PDR:

Plant displacement ratio

PED:

Peak electrical demand

TCR:

Total coverage rate

UDI:

Useful daylight illuminance

VGS:

Vertical green system

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran (Grant No. 20273), to this research project. Moreover, the authors would like to express sincere thanks to Mr. Hamid Mohammadinezhad, Mr. Ali Moaven and Mr. Hojat Tahan for their assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biosystems Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Mohammad Mahdi Naserian & Rasool Khodabakhshian

  2. School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia

    Fatemeh Kazemi

  3. PhD student in Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Plant Production, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

    Mansoure Jozay

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  1. Mohammad Mahdi Naserian
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  2. Rasool Khodabakhshian
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  3. Fatemeh Kazemi
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  4. Mansoure Jozay
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Contributions

Dr. MMN: Designing, set–up preparation, Writing original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Optimization, Validation, Investigation. Dr. RK: Supervision, Conceptualization, review and editing, funding acquisition. Dr. FK: Contribution in the plants selection, preparation and treatment, review and editing. MJ: Contribution in the plants selection, preparation and treatment.

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Correspondence to Rasool Khodabakhshian.

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Naserian, M.M., Khodabakhshian, R., Kazemi, F. et al. Solar thermo-visual gain optimization of a building using a novel proposed nature-based green system. J Therm Anal Calorim 149, 1109–1123 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12759-0

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