Thermal Effect of ‘Changing Clothes Function’ of Building with Changeable Thermal Property of Wall Surfaces

To realize a desirable building environment by saving energy and low global emission, the author has been investigating passive systems in buildings where the environment is controlled biomimetically and autonomously by simulating the physiological functions of human and other organisms. An environmental harmonized Biomimetic Building, which simulates the environment physiology mechanism of a human body and human wisdom for environment symbiosis, has been developed. This paper describes the regional variation of thermal effect estimated theoretically of the Changing Clothes Building (CCB) whose roof and wall surfaces can, depending on the season, autonomously change their thermal properties, such as absoptivity and emissivity. The simulation results showed the remarkable thermal effectiveness and the desirable changing mode of the thermal properties of the CCB for various regions in Japan. The saving energy effects due to the changing clothes function in the typical detached house in Japan were 7 to 32% in house sensible heat load and 6 to 24% in house total (sensible and latent) heat load as compared to the Non Changing Clothes Building (NCCB). The effect in hot weather regions became remarkably bigger than the one in cold weather regions.