Effect of the zone ‘s orientation on thermal comfort and energy saving in the vernacular architecture of Iran (Shiraz city)in the winter period.

For this research, a vernacular courtyard house in the hot –arid climate of Iran has been chosen. The selected house has various zones, oriented in different locations and levels. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which zone of this house in terms of their orientation, as a passive solar design, show better performance for indoor thermal comfort and reducing the amount of energy consumption. For this purpose, the impact of passive solar design on the amount of heating load, relative humidity, operating temperature and the amount of solar gain has been measured, during the winter period. First of all, the house is stimulated in the Rhino software and then by ladybug and honeybee plug-ins are analyzed. The result shows, for up ground zones, the highest amount of solar gain is for zone located in the northeast of the house and PMV model represents that the best thermal comfort is for the underground southwest zone. Moreover, the cost of utility bills illustrates that underground southwest zone used the least electricity to heat the house in winter, and the most cost is for northeast zone approximately more than three times in comparison with the underground southwest zone.

Keywords:

Performance assessment , Thermal comfort , Shiraz , Rhino software , orientation passive solar design