EFEITOS DO USO DE VARANDAS NO DESEMPENHO TÉRMICO DE SALAS DE ESCRITÓRIO EM EDIFÍCIOS VERTICALIZADOS

Abstract

Office buildings present high energy consumption due to the intensive use of computers, data centers and air conditioning systems. In most cases, the air conditioning is essential to provide thermal comfort and increase the user’s productivity, frequently being the main energy consumer. The energy consumption reduction by increasing the building thermal performance in tropical climates can be achieved through design strategies such as natural ventilation and shading. Balconies are horizontal overhanging structures used as fixed solar shading devices that act as an eave to the lower floor, reducing the incidence of direct solar radiation, while allowing the use of wide inlet openings for natural ventilation. This paper evaluates the effects of balconies on thermal performance and natural ventilation of cellular office rooms. Computer simulations were performed varying the balcony’s depth of a reference model. The addition of a balcony to the office room decreased the cooling-degree hours up to 46%, enhanced by the increase of the balcony’s depth. As to the natural ventilation performance, adding a balcony at the windward façade increased the air change rate in the office room, while adding a deep balcony at the leeward façade decreased the air change rate.