Evaluation of Thermal Performance of an Elementary School Building with the Experimental Method: Double Skin Façade System

A double skin façade is one of the generally preferred energy efficient design strategies to reduce energy consumption in buildings. In this study, one of the two similar, south-oriented classrooms in a one storey elementary school building in Ereðli, Konya, Turkey was turned into a Test Classroom by installing double skin façade and the other classroom was designated as the Basic Classroom and hourly ambient temperatures were measured in both classrooms. Hourly ambient temperature values were measured in the Test Classroom and Basic Classroom on 6 consecutive days between 26th of January and 31st of January during the heating period. The working principle of double skin façade systems based on the basis of heating the adjacent space by transferring warmed air from cavity to adjacent space in heating period, cooling the adjacent space by transferring warmed air from cavity to outside environment in cooling period by using the openings like windows and vents on the façade of cavity and glass façade. Openings (windows and vents) in the Test Classroom and glass façade were kept open or closed for periods of 24 hours depending on whether it was the heating period to create different experiment set-ups. Ambient temperatures that were obtained with the measurements done in different experiment set ups with different conditions were analysed and values of the Test Classroom and Basic Classroom were compared. According to the measurements, 0.3°C and 3.0°C higher temperatures were recorded in the Test Classroom compared to the Basic Classroom between 26th of January and 31st of January (heating period).