New designing techniques have been used recently in design phases of buildings to adapt human thermal comfort. Due to wide range of energy consumption within a building, it is impossible to make a proper decision about the impact of different energy efficiency strategies without simulation tools. Architects need to understand the accuracy and precision of simulation software to use them as valuable tools to predict energy consumption. This research aims to investigate the validity of DesignBuilder simulation software by using the actual traditional house in terms of heat gain. In this study, the comparative method was used to determine the differences in heat gain in a traditional courtyard house in Kerman that was simulated using DesignBuilder software and measured experimentally. This study also reveals that the difference between simulation results and empirical measurement is not more than 10%. It can be concluded that DesignBuilder has enough validity to calculate the amount of heat gain in the rooms adjacent to courtyards.

IntroductionGlobal energy demand is increasing for various reasons, including industrial development, economic growth, population growth, and lifestyle changes. On the other hand, fossil fuels cause many environmental problems, including global warming, climate change, ozone depletion, acid rain, water, and air and soil pollution. Incineration of fossil fuels since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution has emitted about 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide, about half of which remains in the atmosphere.Material and Method The faculty building consists of 4 floors. The total number of zones under the control of the faculty, which includes rooms, classrooms, workshops, laboratories, classrooms, toilets, and halls, is 152. The basement has 28 areas; the first floor has 39 areas, and the second and third floors have 34 and 51 areas, respectively. The peak load for the building's cooling needs during the year is 300 kW, and the maximum load required for heating is 155 kW. The faculty currently uses natural gas for heating and electricity for cooling systems.In this research, a vertical geothermal system is designed for this educational building. The pipes of the vertical geothermal system are of the borehole type and are wound vertically into the ground from top to bottom.By considering the standards of the systems and the fact that the maximum loads related to cooling and heating are 300 kW and 155 kW, respectively, the number of boreholes is 80. For this reason, the 80-hole geothermal heat pump system, which is also defined as standard in the software, is selected.Results and DiscussionBy installing the earth tube system in the building, the energy consumption of the building faces general changes. Figure 1 shows the energy consumption during a year while the geothermal system is responsible for providing the needs.As shown in Figure 1, the energy consumption of the geothermal system consists of three sections: fans, pumps, and cooling and heating sections. This whole new system uses less electricity, and by using geothermal energy, natural gas consumption is reduced to zero. Figure 9. Building energy consumption over a year (Earth tube system)The highest consumption is related to fans, and the lowest is related to pumps, equal to 92.07 and 3.36 MWh per year, respectively. The total energy consumption of this scenario is equal to 615.36 MWh per year, which produces 372.91 tons of carbon dioxide. By comparing the traditional system to this novel system, it is clear that the use of geothermal green energy has led to a significant reduction in energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Total energy consumption decreased by 77.89 MW per year and carbon production by 20.83 tons.ConclusionThis study aims to optimize energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions of buildings in Tehran province using a geothermal system. Therefore, the building of the Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies of the University of Tehran has been selected as the building under study. An 80-bore tube geothermal system installed vertically into the ground is designed for the building. The significant results of research and modeling are as follows:By using geothermal energy to provide the heating needs of the building, consumption of natural gas is reduced to zero.Replacing the traditional HVAC system and providing thermal comfort with the geothermal system is associated with a reduction in energy consumption of 77.89 MWh per year.The use of renewable geothermal energy reduces carbon production by 20.83 tons per year.

Today، application of advanced materials has made opportunities to reduce energy consumption of buildings and improve life’ s quality. Smart glasses are among new materials designed to prevent energy loss through windows which could be categorized as Electrochromic glasses, liquid crystals, Gasochromics, Thermochromics and SPDs. In this article introducing various types of smart glasses, their characteristics and thermal performance had been compared. In order to evaluate the impact of smart glasses on energy consumption of building, a small office in Bushehr, Iran has been studied using DesignBuilder simulation software. According to the results, SPD glass has the best performance reducing cooling load of building. Gasochromic, Electrochromic and Thermochromics glasses would also reduce the cooling load respectively. While the amount of solar heat gain varies in different months of the year, the average annual solar heat gain is the lowest using SPD glasses. Application of SPD glass would result in 48. 3% reduction in buildings cooling load compare to ordinary glass. The amount of reduction for Gasochromic, Electrochromic and Thermochromics glasses would be 45. 8%, 34. 1% and 17. 23% respectively. So application of smart glasses in hot and humid climate of Bushehr can reduce solar heat gain and thus cooling load of buildings.

Considering the region's climate, designing the dimensions and proportions of plans and proper location of buildings reduce the thermal and cooling load, and improve natural ventilation of buildings. Accordingly, in this paper, an office building in the temperate and humid climate of Rasht was simulated using DesignBuilder 5. 4, and the natural ventilation and total annual energy consumption were calculated. The aim of the study was to analyze the existing situation, propose methods to improve the ventilation-energy consumption behavior based on plan proportions, orientation, and, present models to design office buildings in temperate and humid climates. Therefore, the building was simulated in seven different orientations, namely south, 45, 30 and 15-degree southeast, and west, and the values of ventilation and annual energy consumption were calculated. Then, it was proposed to adjust building plan proportions from 2: 3 to 1: 3, 1: 2, and 1: 1, to simulate each proportion for 7 different orientations. The lowest total annual energy consumption was observed in a building with a 1: 3 proportion and north-south orientation, and the highest natural ventilation with the same proportion was obtained in 30-degree southwest and southeast orientations. Furthermore, changes of ventilation and energy consumption indices were calculated for the changes in four proportions in order to conduct a comparative quantitative analysis. The highest ventilation index was obtained for the lowest energy consumption growth index in 1: 2 proportion for 15-degree southeast, and west orientation.

The design of a building can provide the highest thermal comfort in the interior without any mechanical equipment and save energy to a large extent. The roof of a building is an important part for thermal loss. This research studies the thermal performance of 14 conventional roof structures in Tehran city by using DesignBuilder 4. 5. It is found that the polystyrene block performs best compared to other structures. Despite the time and cost required to implement the beam for building roofs, the use of the polystyrene block is recommended. The results indicate that the use of 5 cm of thermal insulation in the structure of the roof results in 5. 85% decrease in heat loss during winter and 5. 65% decrease during summer. A reverse roof has a more favorable performance on hot days of the year. Also, the performance of roofing with heat insulation is better than that of the reverse roof in cold days.

Office buildings in the construction sector are the largest consumer of energy. So providing solutions for energy efficiency, improving performance and correcting the operation pattern can reduce energy consumption and improve occupants comfort in these buildings. Using Design builder and CFD simulation software and recording devices, the study has analyzed the environment quality parameters (temperature, humidity and air pressure) to calculate the amount of energy required in a smart building. First the current state of the environment is evaluated. In the next steps the building energy bills analyzed, also simulation and calculation of building loads and ultimately provide solutions to energy audits and energy efficiency of buildings have been discussed. The objective of this study is to review ways to reduce energy consumption in such buildings. The simulation in this study shows that with proper planning and management of energy consumption in intelligent office buildings, there is a possibility of reducing more than 35 to 40% of annual energy consumption. However the most of the savings are in the cooling and lighting sectors in such buildings.

Environmental problems caused by fossil fuel consumption, on the one hand, and the upcoming prospect of ending these fuels on the other, attracted much attention towards sustainable architecture. Traditional buildings can be seen as a sample of sustainability; as they have used strategies to cope with the environment, which have been developed over the years, providing users’ comfort conditions for centuries. But before implementing these strategies in today buildings, we need to know the exact effect of their use; something that is regularly performed by an energy simulation software. Thus, first, we should know the ability of the software in modeling different design strategies, and secondly we should be certain of the validation of its results. This research aims to study the ability of DesignBuilder software (as one of the most applied software for building energy simulation) to model and simulate a complex traditional building. The accuracy of DesignBuilder thermal simulation results, in comparison with the experimental data is the main question of this study. To do this, Rasoulian house in Yazd (in hot and arid climate of Iran) was chosen as a case study and after simulating the entire building, the simulation results were compared with experimental measurement data. The results show that in most spaces, the experimental data were only 1– 5° C different from the results of the simulation. Finally, the probable causes of these differences were analyzed and some suggestions were proposed to develop DesignBuilder, to be more applicable in simulating buildings of hot and arid climate.

In this research, a combination of passive and active methods is used to design a nearly zero energy building in four major climatic regions of Iran, including cold, mild, dry‐ warm, and wet‐ warm ones. The annual energy consumption analysis is performed using DesignBuilder® software. The passive strategies include Trombe Wall, blue roof, and thermochromic windows, and the active methods are using GSHP, LEDs with the linear controller, and photovoltaic systems. Also, the rainwater harvesting system is discussed, and the amount of rainfall which may be collected in different climates is summarized. The results show that Iran has a great potential to develop near zero energy buildings, especially in the cold region in which more than 60% reduction in annual energy consumption may be achievable.

In this research, the role of Phase Change Materials (PCM) in energy saving in lightweight prefabricated buildings is studied. For this purpose, a typical building in Kermanshah, Iran is simulated in DesignBuilder software. A split unit is used as air conditioning system. The annual energy consumption of the building in the reference state is 2577.27 kWh. The implementation of the InfiniteRPCM21C was investigated in all directions including each individual wall, ceiling, four walls simultaneously and the entire building envelope. The southern wall is the best option among the walls with 12.14% energy saving. From an economic point of view, this wall has the best performance as well by saving 2.08 kWh/kgPCM. Implementation on the entire envelope increases savings up to 37.2%. Although this is not an economical case, but it reduces the need for energy to almost zero in four months of the year. By examining the PCM in different layers of the wall, it was found that in all directions, the inner surface of the wall leads to the greatest energy savings. Also, taking account the PCM thickness in the range of 5 to 25 mm showed that the smaller the thickness, the greater the savings per unit mass of the PCM. Therefore, thicknesses more than 20 mm are not recommended. Finally, the effect of the PCM melting point in the range of 18 to 29 degrees Celsius was investigated and it was found that the maximum energy saving is obtained at the melting point of 21 degrees Celsius.