Simulation Based Analysis on the Energy Conservation Effect of Green Wall Installation for Different Building Types in a Campus

The energy consumption behaviour in campus buildings are less well understood than other non-domestic buildings. Energy simulation analysis is a beneficial method in measuring building energy consumption as well as investigating different energy management strategies for the existing buildings. This research has been established through investigating the heating and cooling load reduction potential of green wall as an energy saving measure for three different activity buildings (i.e., research, dormitory and administration) at KAIST campus, using a simulation tool. The focus has been facilitated while exploring how different functional buildings act in response to vertical vegetation in terms of energy savings, considering operational pattern, occupancy schedule and physical characteristics as the deciding parameters. Maximum occupancy during night time in dormitory turned out to be advantageous for reduced heating energy consumption (60%) compared to the research (7%) and administrative (3%) building, which are mostly cooling and day-time dominated. This is because; the largest savings in heating due to vegetation were associated with extreme temperature condition, which is close to zero or sub-zero. Conversely, in summer, vegetation led to become less effective in saving cooling energy, especially for the research and administrative facility where cooling is crucial due to daytime dominated occupancy. Moreover, the cooling energy savings was found to be closely associated with the area covered by plants irrespective of opaque wall and fenestrations