Definition of a reference office building for simulation based evaluation of solar envelope systems

Solar Envelope systems, which represent the technological response for meeting aesthetic requirements and solar renewable energy exploitation on building facades, are gaining rising attention. However, they are still rare on the market. IEA SHC Task 56 focuses on the critical analysis, simulation, laboratory tests and onsite monitoring of market available and near market Solar Envelope systems. Within this framework, reference boundary conditions are required in order to assess the performance of Solar Envelope systems and compare different technologies through numerical simulations. The present paper reviews the process of defining reference boundary conditions for an office building, listing possible simplifications and required assumptions in order to calculate the impact at whole building level in terms of useful and final energy savings related to the installation of a facade integrated technology. The paper concludes with a comparison of simulation results between TRNSYS and DALEC, a simplified concept evaluation tool, which performs combined thermal and lighting analysis already at early design stages.