Identification of the building parameters that influence heating and cooling energy loads for apartment buildings in hot-humid climates

Identifying the building parameters that significantly impact energy performance is an important step for enabling the reduction of the heating and cooling energy loads of apartment buildings in the design stage. Implementing passive design techniques for these buildings is not a simple task in most dense cities; their energy performance usually depends on uncertainties in the local climate and many building parameters, such as window size, zone height, and features of materials. For this paper, a sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the most significant parameters for buildings in hot-humid climates by considering the design of an existing apartment building in Izmir, Turkey. The Monte Carlo method is selected for sensitivity and uncertainty analyses with the Latin hypercube sampling (LHC) technique. The results show that the sensitivity of parameters in apartment buildings varies based on the purpose of the energy loads and locations in the building, such as the ground, intermediate, and top floors. In addition, the total window area, the heat transfer coefficient (U) and the solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of the glazing based on the orientation have the most considerable influence on the energy performance of apartment buildings in hot-humid climates. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.