Building envelope simulation for sustainable built environment

Building sector is considered to be one of the major energy consumers with the level of 40% of the total energy used in the residential sector. Further, it is responsible for 45% of the total CO₂ emissions. All this demands for energy research to find out different options in the concerned areas. In this paper, the building envelope is considered to be constructed with two different options; one with wood as an insulating material and second, with wood as a main construction material. Classical building equations have been utilized for evaluating the building envelope´s performance based on the energy and exergy analysis. The results show that the heat demand rate depends on the ambient temperature and incident solar radiation and the maximum exergy load rate in both the cases is at a temperature of 36.4°C and the value of exergy load rate reduces as we approach to the desired temperature in the building envelope. The main aim is to achieve the thermal comfort with reduced building cooling load for a sustainable future.