The Effect of Materials in Reducing Energy Consumption in Atrium Commercial Centers in the North and Center of Tehran Province

Atriums in malls as a passive solar system can additionally on lighting, reduce the consumption of lighting and artificial ventilation systems. However, at present, due to the lack of suitable materials or lack of climatic information with the required formats of energy simulation software, all research conducted in different cities of Tehran Province have been carried out only with meteorological data of Mehrabad airport, which has sometimes led to erroneous results. This study was conducted to study the effect of materials in reducing energy consumption in commercial centers in the north and center of Tehran Province using Design Builder software and took steps in solving the issue by modifying climate information in the study area. The general method of this research was simulation with a case study approach and in terms of application type. The results of this study was in complete contrast to previous research which had expected the reduction of energy consumption in buildings by increasing the thermal resistance of materials. The present research findings based on atrium commercial centers (chain stores) in the north and center of Tehran and corrected meteorological data in the micro-climate of the study area showed that heating resulting from the internal equipment of chain stores led to completely different results from previous research. Thus, increasing the thermal resistance of materials in the northern climate of Tehran Province reduced energy consumption by 24.7% and in the central Tehran climate increased energy consumption by 13.7%.