OPTIMIZATION OF ZERO-NET ENERGY BUILDINGS WITH DIFFERENT LATITUDE AND DIFFERENT THERMAL INSULATION THICKNESS

Abstract

Reaching zero net energy buildings is one of the leading tracks in scientific research nowadays. One of the factors that can definitely help in reaching of energy saving, is orientation of the building. During the daylight on specific location each side of the inspected building is absorbing different amount of solar energy. It is obvious that this dependence will change with geographic latitude but also with weather conditions at inspected location. Some specific angles of the object orientation to the cardinal direction are analyzed in this paper and simulations are done in EnergyPlus software. Characteristic period of the year are simulated, which include heating (winter) and cooling (summer) period. It is also analyzed different thermal insulation thickness at different latitude, with the aim to minimize the energy consumption and to achieve the zero-net energy building (ZNEB) concept. Analyses are done for the zero-net energy buildings for the geographic latitude of Belgrade, Athens and Berlin.