Evaluating Shading Effects of PV Systems: Discrepancies in Simulation Software and Energy Consumption

A critical procedure in sustainable building design is that building energy consumption has significant implications for the global energy crisis and climate change. This study compares three simulation software programs for a photovoltaic system on a building’s roof. The low-rise residential buildi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnvironmental and Climate Technologies Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 407 - 421
Main Authors Albatayneh, Aiman, Albadaineh, Renad
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Riga Sciendo 01.01.2023
Riga Technical University
Subjects
Building design
Buildings simulation
Climate change
Cooling loads
Cooling systems
Design-Builder
East Mediterranean
Energy consumption
Green buildings
Humid climates
IES-VE
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaics
Residential areas
Residential buildings
REVIT
Roofs
Shading
Simulation
Software
Sustainable design
Thermal comfort
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Summary:A critical procedure in sustainable building design is that building energy consumption has significant implications for the global energy crisis and climate change. This study compares three simulation software programs for a photovoltaic system on a building’s roof. The low-rise residential buildings in three East Mediterranean cities (Amman, Mafraq, and Aqaba) represent moderate dry–warm, semi-arid, and humid subtropical climate zones were compared using three simulation software programs (IES-VE, Design-Builder, REVIT) for a typical building with PV on the roof and the second scenario without a PV system installed on the roof. This investigation aims to evaluate the shading effect of the PV system on a building’s roof structure by calculating the total heating and cooling loads required to maintain thermal comfort inside the building. The results showed significant discrepancies between the three software for the base building design and the PV system on the roof, with a range of around 50 %. This highlights the importance of evaluating and calibrating different simulation tools and using them with a great deal of caution.
ISSN:2255-8837
1691-5208
2255-8837
DOI:10.2478/rtuect-2023-0030