Impact of space layout on energy performance of office buildings coupling daylight with thermal simulation

Abstract

Space layout design is one of the most important phases in architectural design, and current studies have shown that it can affect building energy performance. However, its influence has not been quantified. This paper aims at investigating the impact of space layouts on building energy performance. We use the floor plan of an office building in the Netherlands as reference, and propose eleven space layouts based on the reference. Calculations are performed with the tools Honeybee and Ladybug in Grasshopper, which are developed based on Daysim and EnergyPlus, to simulate lighting, cooling and heating demand of these layouts. In addition, we couple daylight with thermal simulation, by importing the artificial lighting schedule calculated in Daysim to EnergyPlus. The result shows that the heating demand of the worst layout is 12% higher than the best layout, the cooling demand of the worst layout is 10% higher than the best layout, and the lighting demand of the worst layout is 65% higher than the best layout. The total final energy use of the worst layout is 19% higher than the best layout.