Analysing the thermal response of office buildings in hot-arid climates

SYNOPSIS The paper presents an analysis of the temperature response of a room in a multistorey office building in thermal hot and arid climates of Egypt. The offect of various parameters have been studied; shading, orientation, building materials namely clay brick and prefabricated concrete units, proportion of window area, room volume and ventilation rates for summer and winter conditions. The admittance procedure has been used and a computer programme has been developed to calculate the temperature response. The studies show that the mass of an external wall, which incorporates a 25 per cent shaded window, has a considerable influence on the environmental temperature of the room, particularly when ventilation rates are low. It is also shown that environmental temperature is dependent upon room volume but independent of glazing area if an efficient shading device is used. Considerable temperature reduction can be achieved by appropriate design technique and a judicious selection of materials.