Building Performance Modeling Approaches for a Detached Vertical Green Trellis: a Case Study in a Tropical Climate

Passive strategies involving greenery significantly increase energy performance in buildings and comfortable microclimate conditions. However, few studies model and simulate their effect on buildings' energy performance. Thus, this work assesses modelling approaches for conducting building performance simulations where detached vertical green trellises (DVGT) are included. The DVGT characteristics are modelled by: (i) a large solid component blocks and (ii) small opaque solid component blocks to form a grid. A building with glazed façades is evaluated through dynamic simulation under the tropical climate of Panama City, using DesignBuilder. Parametric analysis is performed to look for optimal trellis configuration to reduce the cooling energy demand and assess the artificial lighting needs. Results showed strong agreement with previous studies reporting significant cooling needs reduction while increasing lighting needs. This concludes that the correct optical and radiative properties of the vegetation layer wanted to be modelled in a detached vertical trellis are crucial.