Passive Systems In Raising Energy Efficiency of Public Utility Buildings – Action Simulations

Public utility buildings are formally, structurally and functionally complex entities. Frequently the process of their design involves retroactive reconsideration of energy engineering issues, once a building concept has already been completed. At that stage minor formal corrections are made along with the design of the external layer of the building, satisfying or even exceeding applicable standards. Architecture students do the same when designing assigned public utility buildings. It can be demonstrated on a few examples that transforming the form, structure and function of a building can significantly affect its energy efficiency. In order to prove such a thesis the following assumption was made: both prior to and following the incorporation of changes, the analysed building features external layers of the same thermal insulating. Thus, the building is fitted with external envelopes of the same coefficients of thermal transmittance – U. The following aspects needed to be examined in the analysed buildings: the location in relation to the directions of the world, in order to open it to the insolation from the south and to maximally close it from the north, to improve the function layout in order to enable room temperate zoning, to use passive systems of solar energy gain (direct, indirect and compilation gain systems) from the southern side and to design the control of warm and cool air masses in the building.