The Impacts of Architectural Design on Domestic Energy Consumption in Cold Climate Based upon the Solar Cycle Case Study: Ardebil, Iran

In the past, thermal comfort and lighting were provided through the building design and a limited number of construction equipment. Buildings orientation’s, form, location of spaces, selecting the appropriate skin according to climate, size of opening, etc., all were significant items in architectural design. Such condition, however, was changed considerably in 1960 and mechanical facilities taken to be the main way for providing occupants comfort of buildings. Posterior to the energy crisis in 1972, attending to building design before the mechanical equipment’s use, were under consideration as one of the best ways for saving energy. This issue is an unprecedented one in our country, therefore, it should be determined that; how a historical architect decreased thermal load in buildings and put the ways in priority of design process, as well as the effect of each point on energy consumption, etc. The present study focused on the effect of building design according to the solar cycle in one of the cold climates of Iran. In Solar Design the main spaces which are used during the day, are located in southern side of building due to natural heating, lighting and so on. As a result of the importance of entering light enclosed spaces, the calculation was made for south windows. These mathematical approaches are performed by modeling in energy calculation software named “ECOTECT”. In this research, three main types of common residential plans in Ardabil have been modeled. Therefore, the interior spaces have been replaced in two parts called days and night parts. Spaces located in day part, usually occupied during sunrise to sunset and Spaces located in night part, include the rooms which are used during night like bedrooms. At the first plan, day spaces are located in north of building and bedrooms are located in south. In the second arrangement, living room and one of the bedrooms are located in south. Other spaces are located in north and at least in the third plan, day spaces are located in south and bedrooms are located in north of plan. Final output of simulation is the required domestic heating and cooling load over a year for various dimensions for south window of these three types of plans. The results of energy calculations show, that by comparing plans with 25 percent opening in south face of building, first option has more annual thermal load due to lack of attention in locating spaces according to solar cycle. The thermal load of the second planes 10 percent less than first one, because of having solar gain in living and bedroom. Last plan which all day-time spaces are located in south of building has least thermal load; that is 18 percent less than the first one. Besides, the results show that significant amount of energy saving could be achieved only by locating spaces according to solar cycle, without excesses costs.