The influence of building envelope design on the thermal comfort of high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong
Refereed conference paper presented and published in conference proceedings
CUHK Authors
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AbstractCombined effects of climate change and rapid urbanisation make buildings in high-density cities vulnerable to overheating, and thus induce high cooling energy demand, especially during the more frequently occurring near-extreme conditions in summer. It is necessary to minimise building energy consumption without compromising the comfort of occupants by adopting climate-adaptive building envelope designs. By employing the summer reference year weather data for building simulations, this study examines how the indoor thermal comfort of free-running high-rise buildings in subtropical Hong Kong may be affected by modifications of the wall U-value, the depth of window overhang shading, and the window-to-wall ratio (WWR). Results show that better insulated flats experience less extreme thermal conditions but maintain a warmer-than-comfortable indoor environment, while flats with appropriate shading enjoy a net improvement in thermal comfort, especially for eastward and westward facing flats. When considering the WWR, thermal comfort can be maximised by placing windows strategically to facilitate cross-ventilation. Nevertheless, none of the models are able to achieve comfortable conditions for over 40% of the summertime. Further work is required to explore the potential of combined passive strategies or mixed-mode ventilation in optimising building performance and providing thermal comfort for occupants under future climate change.
All Author(s) ListYu Ting Kwok, Kevin Ka-Lun Lau, Edward Yan Yung Ng
Name of ConferenceWindsor Conference 2018 Rethinking Comfort
Start Date of Conference12/04/2018
End Date of Conference15/04/2018
Place of ConferenceWindsor
Country/Region of ConferenceGreat Britain
Proceedings TitleProceedings of 10th Windsor Conference Rethinking Comfort
Year2018
PublisherNCEUB
Pages1062 - 1075
LanguagesEnglish-United Kingdom
KeywordsBuilding envelope design, Indoor thermal comfort, Building simulation, Summer reference year (SRY), High-rise residential buildings
