Quantitative Analysis of Office Building Orientation and Proportions for Maximum Natural Ventilation to Reduce Energy Consumption (Case Study: Rasht City)

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.