Together with a global concern for the reduction and conservation of energy, the oil crisis of 1973 brought about a turning point in the design of buildings. Responses in this vein were mostly concentrated on the simplistic one of sealing the building against outdoor conditions. This approach towards energy consumption, associated with the introduction of air-conditioning systems, led to different problems such as Sick Building Syndrome. Lack of user satisfaction also appeared to be a common complaint in such sealed, air-conditioned buildings, leading to a marked drop in employee efficiency and, hence, return on capital investments.
In this study, Emek iShani, a sealed office building located in Ankara, whose curtain wall system was renovated in 2001, was investigated in terms of its natural ventilation potential under two sub-topics. With a survey conducted, user perception towards environmental conditions, and health problems they suffered were investigated. With a computer simulation, natural ventilation potential of the building in terms of energy consumption was examined.
It was resulted from the survey that building occupants have serious health problems. They are also not satisfied with the way the ventilation system functions and most of the occupants liked to have a window opening to outside in order to adjust the inner conditions. It was resulted from the computer simulation that integration of natural ventilation did not make any significant difference in the annual energy consumption of the building. On the other hand, cooling loads of the building were eliminated in summer months. As a result, introduction of natural ventilation appeared to be an appropriate tool for more user satisfaction and energy conservation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/1042720/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 September 2003 |
| Creators | Ugursal, Ahmet |
| Contributors | Duzgunes, Arda |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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