Identifying relative importance of solar design determinants on office building façade for cooling loads and thermal comfort in hot-humid climates

Solar radiation makes great influence on cooling load and occupants’ well-being in hot and humid climate zone. Particularly, occupants suffered different extent of solar radiation owing to their positions; thus, assessing the spatial and temporal thermal comfort is essential. It is worthwhile to identify the relative importance of passive solar design parameters for building envelope that these parameters directly affect thermal comfort and energy use. This study confirmed the distribution frequency of cooling loads and temporal thermal comfort usability of the simulation cases in selected cities based on the MRT algorithm that considered the impact of solar radiation. Based on the results, sensitivity analysis was used to analyze the relative importance of passive solar design parameters to clarify the priority when drawing up the façade design strategies. Eventually, correlation among facade parameters, energy use, thermal comfort, and geographic location is revealed. Furthermore, the improvement potential for energy-saving and thermal comfort by adjusting the variables in specific ranges is also demonstrated. The results indicated that within all selected cities, adjusting glazing type makes greatest influence on improvement potential that ranges from 22.8% to 39.5% in annual cooling load and 58.6%–87.5% in temporal thermal comfort usability, whereas the improvement potential for orientation is weaker than other parameters. Moreover, the absolute effect of solar design determinants is also disclosed respectively to discuss the importance of each parameter. Comprehensively, the proposed findings are expected to act as instruction when formulating the passive building envelope design related to solar radiation. •Relative importance of passive solar façade design parameters is clarified.•Disclose impact of climate and façade parameters on energy use and thermal comfort.•Spatial thermal comfort assessment considering impact of solar radiation.•Quantify improvement potential by adjusting different ranges of façade parameters.•Propose the guide for formulating the passive solar building envelope design.