The location I chose for my project is Menlo Park, California. This area has a lot of office buildings. and has enough space for new buildings.
Menlo Park has a relatively high temperature. Reducing solar heat gain is an important part of the design. Menlo Park has a lot of solar resources, so the second important design should be daylight utilization. The buildings can also install PV panels to reduce site EUI.
I have designed two types of buildings. One is a three-story cylinder, and the other is a two-story ring. My actual design concept is something like a flower shape, but this will be finalized in the later designs. Right now, I just use cylinders for analyses.
My prediction was that the ring-shaped design would have better energy performance since it has a courtyard that could be used for ventilation.
1st design option
The energy cost for the first design option is $17.5/m2/yr, a little higher than ASHRAE 90.1’s baseline.
PV energy production is 250,469 kWh/yr and provides $37,570 in energy savings. The highest solar energy on the rooftop is 1,598 kWh/m2.
2nd design option
The energy cost for the second design option is $27.5/m2/yr, which is also higher than ASHRAE 90.1’s baseline. To my surprise, this amount is also higher than the first design option.
PV energy production is 218,034 kWh/yr and provides $32,705 in energy savings. The highest solar energy on the rooftop is 1,192 kWh/m2. These amounts are all lower than the first design option. However, the rooftop area for PV panels is larger than the first one.
My initial design concept for the two design alternatives is that they have similar volumes and shapes, but one is higher, and one is lower; one has a core, and one has a courtyard. My prediction was that the second design option would have better performance. However, the first design option has better performance in both energy and solar aspects. Hence, the first design option may be a better solution.