Exploration of heuristic rules in mass housing design space for minimised energy consumption and CO₂ emission

Optimal energy sensitive design of residential buildings relies on the eclectic selection of active and passive components, where their effectiveness is supported by theoretical and simulation-based analyses. This paper presents an exploration of heuristic rules in mass housing design space for minimised energy consumption and C0₂ emission. This study is intended to encourage initiatives aimed at developing energy efficient multi-storied residential buildings in South Korea by considering relevant passive design strategies and to support architects' and engineers' judgement before zeroing down on a set of effective passive design solutions by providing ready reference of generalized test cases. Passive design of a building depends heavily on site and climatic conditions, thus the heuristics proposed in this paper is applicable primarily to residential buildings in South Korean climate.Twelve test cases of residential building performance indicators (viz. plan proportion, building orientation, wall insulation thickness, wall insulation location, window area, window location, window construction, balcony type, balcony depth, blind angle, infiltration, natural ventilation) were selected following a literature survey based on existing and decision influencing passive design parameters. Evaluation of this analytical framework is demonstrated using simulation results generated by DesignBuilder™. The simulated energy consumption and CO₂ emission profile obtained on iterating each passive design parameter is compared against that of a base case residential unit modelled as per the local building codes in Korea. The study conclusively suggests a weighted energy efficiency per lifecycle cost method for prioritising the design strategies by including the cost factor alongside the predicted energy savings applicable to the energy sensitive design of Korean multi-family housing complexes.