Form and Orientation Selection
Subject
Climatology
,Academic Year
2'nd Year
,Complexity Level
Intermediate
,Content tags
Building Heat Transfer
,Form and Orientation
,Passive Design Principles
,Solar Geometry
,Activity Type
Quiz
,Activity duration
< 30 mins
,Objective
To enable students to understand the heat gain from different directions of Sun’s position.
Outcome
Students will be able to understand that the choice of a form and orientation of a building affects the heat gain to a building.
Requirements
None
Prerequisites
Conceptual knowledge of passive design strategies
Procedure
Step 1: Show the following image A and image B to students
Step 2: Ask students which image they will want to select for their design
Step 3: Give 5 minutes to students to think on the questions posed.
Step 4: Students share their views on the questions for 15 minutes.
Step 5: Explain to students about the heat gain caused due to the East, West, North and South orientation of a design.
Thumb rules:
- In northern tropical climates, orient building shorter side to the E-W axis so that thermal gain due to solar radiation will get minimised and daylight infiltration maximised
- Controlling sunlight through horizontal shading devices is easier on the Southern/Northern side. Whereas, vertical shading devices on the Eastern and Western side of the building.
References
Image A & B
