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Forum discussion

CS-2009 EAp2:Minimum Energy Performance

WWR calculation - green wall - lattice

Hi all! I’m modeling a 49-story building with 7 basements, and it has over 40 % (about 85 %) of its envelope covered with glazing, so I have a doubt about the calculation on the Window to Wall Ratio, to work it out, I found the example G-D in the 90.1 User’s Manual ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 (page G-16). Something I was wondering about is how to exactly compute the WWR, specifically, I want to know if I should consider only the gross above-grade wall area (as the Ashrae Standard mentions, Table G3.1.5.c) or I should consider the gross exterior wall area including the above-grade walls and below-grade wall area as well (90.1 User’s Manual ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, page 5-47). This is necessary because I have to reduce the percentage of glazing for my baseline design, and I don't really know if I should consider the 7 basements to calculate that reduction. Last, my model also has a large green wall on a side and lattice covering almost all the building (with irregular shapes), so I would like you to share with me some information about how to model them please, because I haven’t seen anything in the Ashrae Standard about lattice and green wall. I think I only should consider the green wall in my proposed design, actually I was thinking about modeling it as a wall but changing the U-factor and R-factor, and with the lattice I had in mind something similar but modifying the U-factor and SHGC, but surfing on forums I found that it’s even more difficult to do it. I hope you can help me! Thanks in advance.

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Thu, 08/16/2012 - 00:20

The WWR is calculated on the above grade walls/windows and would not include the basements. There does appear to be a potential conflict between the Standard and the User's Manual. The Standard applies if the User's Manual conflicts. The Appendix G portion of the User's Manual and the Standard seem to be in sync. I would treat the green wall areas as exterior shading devices assuming the lattice is added outside the wall/windows and the plants grow on the lattice. These can be modeled in the proposed but do not get modeled in the baseline. This would affect the solar loads but not the conductive loads so the U-value would remain that of the windows but the SHGC would vary. Depending on the planting material and climate the shading effect could vary seasonally. Be sure to include a thorough narrative explaining your modeling assumptions and you might even consider doing this as an exceptional calculation since this is not really a direct input in any modeling software I am aware of and so the saving claimed are called out. Good luck with this one.

Tue, 01/08/2013 - 12:05

Hi, The WWR is calculated based on gross-above grade wall areas, which includes the wall areas of conditioned and unconditioned spaces, right? If in my project I have, for example, 7 above-grade floors of parking area, which have no glazing area, should I consider the area of these 7 floors in order to calculate the WWR?

Tue, 01/08/2013 - 17:30

I do not think that uncondtioned wall area counts for this ratio.

Tue, 01/08/2013 - 19:22

But the gross above-grade wall area accounts for all the above-grade wall area, doesn't it?

Tue, 01/08/2013 - 20:42

No, not really. The walls of the unconditioned spaces do not need to be insulated or meet any of the other window performance criteria so they would not count toward the fenestration area requirements either.

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