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%.