SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR ENERGY PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS: A STUDY ON BUILDING ENVELOPE DESIGN

ABSTRACT The building envelope is the most essential building element that affects energy efficiency in buildings as this interface separates the building from the external environment. While considering the impact of the building envelope on energy performance, a model was developed for residential buildings in Turkey with 12,960 scenarios examining wall and window size, material and system, form, and orientation input parameters. By using sensitivity analysis, which includes statistical calculations of data sets of 12,960 scenarios performed through Design Builder and Jeplus software, numerical data on the parameters affecting the cooling design are presented for designers. As a result of the calculations, it was found that a change in window size and material properties has a high effect on the annual cooling load; by contrast, the wall properties had a limited impact. Building orientation was one of the design parameters that significantly changed the cooling load.