Impact of conservatory as a passive solar design of UK dwellings

Abstract

The prime goal of professionals in the built environment is to build cost-effective, environmentally sustainable buildings. This work focuses on the viability of passive solar design strategies of conservatories in the UK in mitigating the impact of future climate change. It further shows that passive solar energy utilisation in building design can contribute to the reduction of dwelling energy consumption and enhancement of indoor thermal comfort. Synergetic passive design strategies that optimise solar energy gains through thermal simulation analyses of varying future climatic conditions, occupant behaviour, building orientation, thermal mass, advance glazing, appropriate ventilation and shading, which influence the potential thermal performance of the conservatory, are devised. The balanced energy benefits of reduction in energy consumption through the application of passive solar design principles for space heating in winter and the challenge of reducing excessive solar gains in summer are analysed using the Cibse TM52 adaptive thermal comfort criteria. The results show that judicious integration of passive solar design strategies in conservatories, with increasing conservatory size in elongated south-facing orientation with an aspect ratio of at least 1·67, could decrease energy consumption, enhance thermal comfort and help to mitigate the impact of climate change when the conservatory is neither heated nor air conditioned.