Energy Efficiency and Fire Prevention Integration in Green Buildings

Green buildings are designed to be sustainable, efficient, economical and to improve the life quality of users and nearby residents. Buildings with 100% windows, called glass skin, are the most sought for commercial occupancy, for being aesthetically beautiful, elegant and generate a sense of technology and power, although it can present bigger expenses in energy consumption and present higher fire risk situations for its occupants. The HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system is the biggest energy consumer, representing up to 48% of all the final electric energy consumption. Several factors can influence a building energy efficiency and fire safety, such as bigger or lesser glasses area, the thermal inertia of the building materials and the use of sustainable materials such as green roofs. The major contribution of this work is to integrate the analysis of fire and energy efficiency with the requirements of green buildings standards. In this work, two different glass area buildings are analyzed; a glass skin and another building with 40% window area; accounting for the total energy use of the HVAC system as the growth of the fire and the evacuation of the building.