Dariusz Heim

In the paper, the authors analyzed the impact of space and time discretization on the simulation results of air flow through the double skin façade and its distribution in the adjacent zone. Temperature and air flow in the different parts of the room were considered, taking into account the influence of changeable solar irradiation and wind speed. The calculations additionally took into account: geometry of the zone and its position in the building; weather conditions; façade orientation relative to the cardinal directions; size and types of ventilation components in the network flow.

Due to latent heat storage potential, phase change materials can be implemented in building materials to improve energy performance and thermal comfort. Nevertheless, the phase change effect is quite a complex phenomenon for numerical modelling and different methods can be used to estimate the results of latent heat storage. This paper presents a brief overview of the existing numerical methods and a short description of two most frequently used ones. Authors also investigated the capabilities of phase change modelling by three simulation tools. This work is a part of a wider research project which aims to find optimal solution of façade construction with the implementation of PCM. The choice of a proper numerical method was considered the first step to achieve this goal.

The paper presents the effect of using additional daylight illumination of building interiors using tubular skylight systems. Interior illuminance distribution was analysed using a combination of two daylight sources – window and skylight pipes. The results were obtained for cloudy weather conditions. Final remarks concern the effectiveness of supplementary daylighting of interiors using different configurations of light pipes.

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the daylighting of exemplary office interiors. Simulation results were obtained using a radiance model. The following indexes: UDI, DF, DA, DSP were calculated and analysed for different solutions of building façade. The construction differs in the total thickness of the wall. Two cases were considered: 25 cm and 50 cm opaque sections. Additionally, window magnitude changes from 0.36 m2 to 1.44 m2, with different shapes and locations relative to the centre of the wall. The idea of the work was to find out the architectural solution of the transparent element (geometry and magnitude) taking into account two criteria: decreasing solar heat gains; increasing the daylight utilisation factor. The results are presented in the form of a diagram of daylight distribution as well as average values of visual comfort indexes. The highest values of each indicator (DF, DA and DSP) were obtained for a centrally placed window 1.44 m2. However, the results of useful daylight index UDI depend on the assumed range and it is not easy to identify a relationship between window size and daylight efficiency.

The paper summarizes the methods of calculating heat gain by transparent insulation using two national standards. The energy balance of the partition was evaluated taking its orientation into account. A comparison was conducted into the methods of assessing the effectiveness of transparent insulation.

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in using of renewable energy sources, especially solar energy which can be converted into electricity by photovoltaic panels. In addition to traditional stand-alone photovoltaic systems, more and more new or modernized buildings are equipped with integrated photovoltaic systems (BIPV). The main aim of this paper is to compare two models used to calculate amount of electric power generated by photovoltaic panel. Analysed models were implemented into well-known simulation programs, ESP-r and TRNSYS.