Name: Piolo Julius G.

Cabagnot Date Submitted: May 13, 2021

Course & Year: BSME – III Offering No.: Z189
MEng 141.3 – Energy Engineering & Management
Insight Paper for Lecture-Series 3

Thermal comfort refers to a person's positive view of the thermal environment. It applies
to a variety of situations in which the majority of people are at ease and feel comfortable. We
now spend an increasing amount of time indoors, where we demand a degree of thermal
comfort that guarantees our well-being and productivity. The fundamental concepts underlying
thermal comfort are essentially common, but thermal response differs from person to person
as concentration, dexterity, as well as the occurrence of casualties are influenced by
temperature. As we enter into the modern age where the global population, urbanized cities,
and the demands of comfort are continually rising, it is more necessary than ever to strive to
reduce energy dependence in buildings while meeting comfort demands. One of the first steps
to take is to design a thermal efficient building.

In order to predict the thermal efficiency and energy consumption of a desired building,
we engineers should first establish an imitative and illustrative representation of the desired
building. This can be done by modeling the desired building or simply by using simulation. By
using simulation, we engineers would be able to reduce costs and provide a less time
consuming operation than if we did experimentation on every building engineer's design. Since
simulation enables engineers to model a building before it is constructed. This allows for the
investigation of different energy alternatives, and multiple solutions can be weighed and can
therefore be compared to one another. Energy modelling allows one to understand a building
or a facility’s operating characteristic before taking over the building. Buildings, particularly
commercial facilities, are not mass-produced consumer products. They are developments that
are receptive to both intrinsic and extrinsic criteria. Until the final prototype is reproduced, mass-
produced products are physically prototyped and tested thousands or even hundreds of times.
This method is impractical for individual buildings. And, while energy saving strategies,
optimization techniques, and their performance characteristics do migrate or transfer from one
building to the another, this transfer is often subject to building conditions and context, as well
as the existence of other design features, and is therefore better regarded as qualitative. By
quantifying the effect of interventions in a new environment, simulation aims to overcome this
shortcoming. A variety of software is available and is important in providing energy usage of a
building, which, as previously said, has an impact on the thermal comfort that the building can
offer. EnergyPlus Program is among the capable of forecasting monthly/annual energy costs,
annual CO2 emissions, assessing fit efficiency options, and calculating life cycle paybacks.
Knowing this would assist people in saving energy and creating their energy modeling, which
would allow them to easily assess the proper system, analysis, investigation, situation, and
mitigation that the different designs might deliver at a relatively low and efficient cost.

With all that being said, we can say how the thermal building simulation in building
design and construction is undeniably important not only for saving resources, time, and
energy, but also for achieving a thermally efficient building that meets our thermal comfort
requirements.