TY - JOUR
T1 - Development and application of a building energy performance metric for green roof systems
AU - Moody, Seth S.
AU - Sailor, David J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant 0853933 and the US Department of Energy under award DE-EE0003870 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding organizations.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - This study develops a thermal performance metric for vegetated roof systems. The Dynamic Benefit of Green Roofs (DBGR) is the ratio of Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) energy use for a building with a conventional roof to that of a building with a green roof. If the green roof results in lower energy use than a conventional roof with the same level of thermal resistance the value of DBGR is greater than unity. Data from a field study in Portland Oregon were used to validate the green roof model incorporated within a whole-building energy simulation program. This model was then used to estimate the DBGR for a new construction office building in four climates: Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; and Houston, Texas. Results suggest that a green roof in Atlanta and Houston would provide net annual HVAC energy savings compared with a traditional roof. The Chicago case, with severe winter and mild spring/summer/fall, resulted in a smaller energy savings. The DBGR for Portland was less than unity, suggesting a net energy consumption penalty associated with the green roof. This was due, in part, to the undesirable evaporative cooling in the shoulder seasons which led to increased building heating loads.
AB - This study develops a thermal performance metric for vegetated roof systems. The Dynamic Benefit of Green Roofs (DBGR) is the ratio of Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) energy use for a building with a conventional roof to that of a building with a green roof. If the green roof results in lower energy use than a conventional roof with the same level of thermal resistance the value of DBGR is greater than unity. Data from a field study in Portland Oregon were used to validate the green roof model incorporated within a whole-building energy simulation program. This model was then used to estimate the DBGR for a new construction office building in four climates: Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; and Houston, Texas. Results suggest that a green roof in Atlanta and Houston would provide net annual HVAC energy savings compared with a traditional roof. The Chicago case, with severe winter and mild spring/summer/fall, resulted in a smaller energy savings. The DBGR for Portland was less than unity, suggesting a net energy consumption penalty associated with the green roof. This was due, in part, to the undesirable evaporative cooling in the shoulder seasons which led to increased building heating loads.
KW - Building energy modeling
KW - Energy performance
KW - Green roofs
KW - Thermally massive systems, Sustainable roofing
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U2 - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.02.002
DO - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.02.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84874747435
SN - 0378-7788
VL - 60
SP - 262
EP - 269
JO - Energy and Buildings
JF - Energy and Buildings
ER -