Computer-supported methodologies to estimate the eave effect on building energy consumption

Buildings (both commercial and residential) are known to have the greatest percentage of overall energy consumption than any other end-user sectors, such as transportation and industry factories. An obvious question for energy consumption analysis is how to reduce building energy consumption. This paper investigates whether buildings with eaves consume significantly less energy compared to those without eaves. Results show that the eaves effect can reduce energy consumption without exception. Specifically, the average energy consumption reduction with eave exceeds 10% for high or low latitude and hospital and hotel. The methodologies applied integrate several computer-supported cooperative tools, including a building-simulation tool called EnergyPlus and a simulation meta model.