Adaptiva klimatskal

ABSTRACT Striving for a more sustainable society improving the performance and reducing the energy consumption of buildings are important steps. Historically, buildings where designed based on the pre-conditions given by the surrounding environment and together with the available natural resources, creating comfortable spaces in relation to the climate. A long with technical development buildings have advanced into being less specified for a specific site and more and more dependent on technical systems to maintain interior comfort. In this thesis adaptive envelopes are studied, how they work, which materials that can be used for such systems and how they can improve the performance of the building. Adaptive envelopes, which can be divided into macro, micro or combined systems, intend to improve the comfort and energy performance of a building through using the energy available in the surrounding as a trigger for a change or alteration in the envelope configuration to work more efficiently under those specific circumstances. This can be done through an energy input that is controlled by a changed precondition and alters a mechanically controlled system or by the means of smart materials that react to changes depending on the material properties. Smart material systems are reliable and robust in the sense that they always react the same way and that they require less parts. But the mechanical systems have the advantage of being possible to control and to over-rule based on the desire of the occupants. Results from the literature study shows that there are possibilities of reducing energy use through implementation of adaptive envelope solutions but that it still need to be further developed in order to be easily adopted to regular buildings. But as simulation tools are becoming better and better and more available adaptive envelopes is a viable solution for maintaining interior comfort without consuming large amounts of energy