Thermal performance of typical classrooms in South Korea
February 21st, 2010
Guest author: Yun Ho Chung
This dissertation project starts from the question why many school buildings in South Korea are similar. Even though it is a very small country, it has different climate conditions in different parts of the country. However, due to the fact that demand for educational facilities was dramatically increased by the development of the Korean economy in the 1970s- and 80s, the Korean government could not afford to provide different school plans for each different climate. For this reason, the educational department made a standard plan which was used all around the country.
The project is based on POE research to understand and investigate learning environment in the classrooms. From the research, the problems can be found when on entering the classrooms, where the majority of the occupants feel discomfort. Environmental factors such as thermal condition, daylighting and air quality can affect each other and it can cause unexpected user behaviours which can increase energy consumption.
Because the daylighting condition in the classrooms is not poor, the upgrading strategies are focused on retrofitting the facilities with optimising thermal properties. It appears that conservatories and shading devices are most effective in terms of reducing annual heating and cooling loads and additional external reflectors are required to compensate for daylighting reduction. Conservatories can be used for both improving thermal properties and pre-heating inlet air when the windows are opened owing to poor air quality during the winter.
The final proposal is combining these optimised elements to reduce total energy consumption as well as improving the learning environment in typical classrooms.
Tags: architectural association, education, research, retrofitting, south korea, sustainble environmental design
This entry was posted
on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 10:12 PM.
Category: Research Initiatives.
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