The energy-conscious design of school buildings can contribute to significant energy savings and improve the students’ learning environment. The purpose of new research reported by Yael Valerie Perez and Isaac Guedi Capeluto from the University of California, Berkeley and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is to formulate design recommendations for school buildings in hot–humid climatic zones, and assess the influence of different design variables on their energy consumption.

A base-case classroom was constructed by taking commonly used values for each design variable. Using computer simulation techniques, these variables were modified one by one to find the value that minimized energy consumption, while keeping thermal and visual comfort in the room.

Based on these tests, the recommended value for each design variable to achieve a high-performance classroom, was determined. Comparative tests were done to determine which variables have greatest impact on the energy consumption and thermal comfort in the classroom, and how their absolute influence depends on the order of implementation of each improvement.

A high-performance design for a school classroom in such a hot–humid climate could reduce the annual energy consumption for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting from 180 to 80 kWh/m². This means a reduction of more than 50% of the energy consumption as compared to an existing classroom in Israel.

The cooling system is the major energy consumer that has greatest potential for energy savings. Nevertheless, even in the improved classroom the energy consumed for cooling is much higher than all the other systems. This is due to the hot–humid climate with high latent and sensible heat.

It is observed that a well designed classroom uses less artificial lighting, and the children can benefit from the daylight almost all year round. A reduction in the use of artificial lighting also contributes to a reduction of heat loads and therefore energy reduction for cooling. Moreover, the use of daylight will have a positive influence on the performance of the children in the classroom.

Applied Energy, Volume 86, Issue 3, March 2009, Pages 340–348.
DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2008.05.007