High performance high-rise buildings (HRB) : a case in tropical climate construction

Abstract

Purpose: The world's increasing need for energy comes with consequences like rising pollution and global warming. It is crucial to drastically cut back on energy use and completely stop using non-renewable energy sources. This research primary objective is to develop a commercial high-performance high-rise building for a tropical city like Chennai, India and to investigate the value of a sustainable building practice on the health, safety, and security of building occupants, the effects on ecological balance, and the requirements of high-performance high-rise buildings. This study investigates ways to include passive design elements into high-rise building plans, like natural lighting and ventilation, to significantly cut energy use and boost the residents' mental health. Numerous passive cooling techniques have been studied and incorporated within the building design to achieve a lower carbon footprint. This research emphasises optimal ways to design a building with lower electricity consumption. Design/Methodology/Approach: The preliminary stages of building designs are indispensable and highly influence the performance of the building's energy consumption. By considering the cost of power, the amount of CO2 created by the building's use, and the size of the HVAC system needed for a specific building, SEFAIRA software was used to gain an early-stage analysis of the building's daylight and energy performance. Additionally, using SEFAIRA software, it was possible to comprehend how daylighting might affect a building's size and orientation. Findings: According to the findings, energy is used more sparingly by high-performance building design models than by traditional building design models. The high-performance building model consumes 40% less power than the conventional building design, which is 4,580,998 kWh. Additionally, each year a High-Performance Building model saves 441,606 US dollars which is a 40% saving when compared to the conventional building model. The main principle of designing a sustainable building is to create a building that consumes lower power with providing a comfortable environment. The comfort analysis carried out using ASHRAE 55 standard and predicted mean vote (PMV) confirmed that the high-performance building model offers a better comfortable indoor environment than the conventional building design model, for more than 99% of the building's occupied hours. The comfortable environment within the building is achieved by using an adequate amount of solar protection provided to the facades in the high-performance building design model. Practical applications: In conclusion, a proposed building management system can monitor the activity of the HRB and effectively regulate the power consumption, water consumption, and safety of the building occupants. Consequently, the high-performance high-rise building design suggested by this study effectively works sustainably and offers a comfortable both internal and external environment for building occupants in a tropical climate. Originality value: The proposed design for a high-performance high-rise building effectively operates in a sustainable manner and offers a comfortable internal and outdoor environment for occupants in a tropical climate.