Performance Assessment of Double Skin Façade in Optimizing Building Energy Consumption (Case Study in Shiraz)

Reducing the energy consumption of the buildings in Iran is essential, since the building energy consumptions in the country are about 40% of the total energy consumption. Approaches and strategies to reduce the level of energy consumption in buildings can be investigated in two main parts: designing energy-efficient buildings and energy efficiency in existing buildings. With the advent of various technologies, complexity and administration costs are also increased. Therefore, the decision-making about the selection of optimal strategies and finding the solutions to reduce the energy consumption in buildings has become more important. On the other hand, the interaction between the design elements, climate, users, cooling, heating, ventilation, and lighting is very complex and can only be studied by simulating all of the influencing factors in the energy efficiency of the building. Since the building shell as the separator of the interior and exterior environment plays an important role in the thermal behavior of the buildings, in this article, the use of double skin facades was investigated, as a new technology that is designed as an obstruction which creates a balance between the interior and exterior environments. Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that if this technology is properly used and implemented in the designing process of the buildings, it could have an important role in reducing the energy consumption of buildings, as well as several side benefits.