Study of hospital building envelope to facilitate passive cooling inside inpatient rooms in the context of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Abstract

Depletion of biofuel at an increasing rate coupled with global warming give rise to the necessity of energy conservation as well as to search for alternative sources of energy. The particular importance on building is of pivotal importance because building on the face of planet is responsible for the consumption of almost half of the energy that is produced worldwide, most of which is used to maintain desired indoor artificial environment. The environment of Bangladesh alongside with the other parts of the world moving towards extremities. North-Western part of Bangladesh is worst case scenario in this aspect. Maintaining thermal comfort inside inpatient room using mechanical means is expensive, energy intensive, and thus impractical. Adding to this already miserable condition Bangladesh is not self-sufficient in energy sector. Considering all these factor, this research would made an attempt to facilitate passive cooling inside inpatient room in the context of Rajshahi (a district and division of Bangladesh) through parametric study of hospital building envelope. This research is a quantitative in nature. Literature review provided an overall frame work for the research, followed by field survey to obtain raw data and then OpenStudio plug-in in SketchUp was used to produce three dimensional model to simulate envelope condition for parametric study in EnergyPlus simulation engine. The findings indicate a correlation exists between building envelope condition and thermal comfort. Hence an opportunity to provide passive cooling is a possibility inside inpatient room of hospital building. It is expected that finding and expectation from this research for envelope condition will improve the thermal environment of inpatient room of hospital building and provide condition for thermal comfort to achieve the well-being of patients and the staff as well. It will also help in conserving energy for cooling purpose.