Thermal Discomfort
Up to this stage, the amount of energy consumption was examined during
peak hot and cold periods as well as within the thermal comfort range.
In this section, other time periods during which the samples are within
the thermal discomfort range are examined. The samples were categorized
into two groups including ‘very hot and ‘very cold; the former refers to
hours during the day when the samples are under a temperature of over
25 while the latter refers to below 17. Accordingly, the thermal
performance of the samples in hot and cold periods of the year can be
demonstrated. As previously mentioned, the extent of thermal comfort in
any climates depends on the extent of openings (doors and windows) in a
building. The calculations in this section are based upon the natural
heating and cooling systems.
According to the results of analyses, the samples demonstrated similar
performances in the cold period; increased wall transparency in all
samples led to the maximum and minimum periods of comfort. The stretched
samples in length showed more desirable performances; accordingly, the
closer the shape of the building to a square, the lower the thermal
comfort (e.g., Sample B). Similar to other samples, due to having the
same width and length, Sample B did not have the major differences of
10-60% transparency.
Additionally, results showed that in this interval, increase in the
number of openings increased the thermal comfort, except for cases with
the transparency of above 80%.