The Impact of Different Thermal Comfort Models on Zero Energy Residential Buildings in the Hot Climates

The selection Selecting the right of a thermal comfort model for establishing optimal indoor optimal hygrothermal conditions during the hot period has a major impact on energy consumption of Net Zero Energy Buildings in hot climates. The objective of this paper is to compare the influence of using different thermal comfort models for zero energy buildings in hot climates. The paper compares the impact of applying Fanger’s model, Givoni’s model, the ASHRAE 55 adaptive comfort model and the EN 15251 adaptive comfort model about in terms of energy consumption and comfort performance. Using both the building performance simulation tools ZEBO and EnergyPlus for energy simulation, an existing prototype of a residential apartment module is used to evaluate the energy performance and thermal comfort in two parametric series. The first one is the result of coupling natural ventilation and mechanical cooling, and the second one is the result of guided coupling natural ventilation, mechanical cooling, and ceiling fans. This study shows that the difference in percentage of energy consumption usage difference for meeting the comfort criteria according to the ISO 7730 in comparison to the EN 15251, ASHRAE 55 or Givoni’s model, which varied up to 16%, 21%, and 24.7% respectively for the presented case study. More energy savings can be expected for buildings in hot climates with greater cooling demands.