Impact of different thermal comfort models on zero energy residential buildings in hot climate

The selection of a thermal comfort model for establishing indoor optimal hygrothermal conditions during the hot period has a major impact on energy consumption of Net Zero Energy Buildings in hot climates. The objective of this paper is to compare the influence of using different thermal comfort models for zero energy buildings in hot climates. The paper compares the impact of applying Fanger's model, Givoni's model, the ASHRAE 55 adaptive comfort model and the EN 15251 adaptive comfort model on energy consumption and comfort performance. Using both the building performance simulation tools ZEBO and EnergyPlus for energy simulation, an existing prototype of a residential apartment module is used to evaluate energy performance and thermal comfort in two parametric series. The first one is the result of coupling natural ventilation and mechanical cooling and the second one is guided coupling natural ventilation, mechanical cooling and ceiling fans. This study shows that the percentage of energy consumption difference meeting the comfort criteria according to ISO 7730 in comparison to EN 15251, ASHRAE 55 or Givoni's model varied up to 16%, 21% and 24.7%, respectively for the presented case study. More energy savings can be expected for buildings in hot climates with greater cooling demands.