Evaluating Energy-Saving Potential of Passive Design Technologies Based on Residential Architectural Prototypes

This research project explores the energy-saving potential of passive design technology under specific building prototypes. Five passive technologies were determined to be evaluated by the energy-saving effectiveness, which are building orientation, airtightness, external wall U-value, roof U-value and window U-value. Firstly, nine prototype models are built in IESVE to perform energy consumption. Based on the orthogonal table, a total of 144 groups of energy consumption data were obtained and conducted into SSPS to do a linear regression analysis to obtain the sensitivity ranking of the five passive technologies in each prototype. Generally, for the single passive technology, Roof U value and orientation were the most effective passive technical means to reduce energy consumption, followed by Windows U value. Air tightness and wall U value are less significant factors. When using the combination of passive technology to achieve the desired energy-saving goal of 65%, among the pairwise solutions, only the combination of roof and window optimization solutions was successful, and both techniques were verified as the most effective strategies during the individual test stage. The overall results of this research can provide architects with some reference when designing new residential buildings or renovating existing residential buildings. In future studies, the researcher can carry out more building prototypes for other regions and related sensitivity analysis of other design technologies, to provide an integrated framework for building retrofit and green building design.