Four Rules Of Thumb That Could Lead You Astray

Rules of thumb can point you in the wrong direction. Heres what you need to know so you dont get misled.

Copyright 2013 Sefaira Ltd.

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Introduction
For many decades, rules of thumb have been the go-to resource for architects seeking to design high-performance buildings. Rules of thumb provide a convenient shorthand for capturing general responses to climatic conditions, and for illustrating the fundamentals of how energy is captured, lost, and used in a building. However, rules of thumb have their limitations. They generally do not take into account the specifics of a projects site, context, usage, or building shape. They do not apply well to edge cases that fall outside the bounds of normal expectations but neither do they help designers identify which designs are edge cases and which are not. Furthermore, they do not identify which design elements have the biggest impact on performance. As a result, rules of thumb end up being prescriptive rather than flexible dictating design rather than empowering architects to understand tradeoffs and meet performance goals creatively. This paper explores four common rules of thumb related to the building envelope, including: building orientation shading depth glazing ratios operable area for natural ventilation. In each case, normal variations in site, usage, and building design can cause the rules to lead to less-than-optimal designs. At times they point in the wrong direction entirely. Today, designers have a number of alternatives to using rules of thumb. Fast, intuitive sustainability analysis can provide real data to drive design decisions in the right direction from a projects inception. This paper represents an initial exploration into the effectiveness of rules of thumb. We invite anyone who has comments, suggestions, or different perspectives to share them with us at info@sefaira.com.

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Rule 1: East-West Orientation

The Rule One of the most common rules of thumb related to sustainable design is that the ideal alignment for most buildings is for its long axis to run east-west. This allows the building to have a majority of its glazing on the north and south, where sunlight can be most easily harvested and controlled for daylight and passive solar gain.

WHEN IT WORKS A simple rectangular building (optimal orientation is within 10 of due south) S

S N N

WHEN IT MISSES A building with self-shading or overshading (here, optimal orientation is 42 east of south)

When it Works This rule generally works for buildings with a simple rectangular shape, relatively symmetrical glazing, and no significant obstructions to sunlight, such as neighboring buildings or trees. Our example is a roughly rectangular office building located in Pittsburgh, PA. In this case, analysis revealed that the ideal orientation is 10 degrees east of south not precisely what the rule of thumb suggested, but relatively close. When it Misses For sites with some amount of shading and/or non-rectangular shapes particularly forms with some amount of self-shading like the L-shape building shown above this rule can fall apart entirely. In the case we studied, the orientation that minimized energy use was nearly 45 degrees east of south.

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Whats Happening? The reasons for these failures is that the right balance between heating and cooling and therefore the right amount of solar exposure varies depending upon the specific design of the building. For buildings with self-shading or obstructions, finding this balance can become complex, because the majority of sunlight is not necessarily coming from the south.

Rule 2: Shading Depth

The Rule There are numerous rules of thumb for sizing shading devices. They typically follow this form: shading should be 1/4 the height of the opening in southern latitudes (36L) and 1/2 the height of the opening in northern latitudes (44L). The intent is to block sunlight in the summer months, but allow solar gain in the winter, when the heat is beneficial. When it Works This rule works well for externally-loaded building types (e.g., residential design), buildings oriented due south, and buildings whose envelope is built to typical specifications meaning average levels of insulation, air tightness, etc. Our example Shading - Low Insulation building is a multi-family residence in Barcelona, Spain. Parametric analysis revealed an Shading - Low Insulation optimal shading length of 0.8 meters (2.6 ft.), which is in line with the rule of thumb.
Shading - Low Insulation

WHEN IT WORKS Standard envelope construction (optimal shading is expected depth)

Shading - Low Insulation Shading - High Insulation Shading - High Insulation Shading - High Insulation

WHEN IT MISSES High-performance construction (optimal shading length is longer than rule of thumb suggests)

Shading - High Insulation

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When it Misses There are several cases in which this rule fails to yield optimal results: High-Performance Construction: Improving the envelope of our example building changes the balance between heating and cooling requirements. As the envelope improves, heating is required for fewer months out of the year meaning that solar gain is beneficial for less of the year. In our example building, the high performance case benefits from 4 fewer months of solar gain than the typical case. This means that additional shading is beneficial or that we might want to explore a retractable shading option that could provide solar exposure only when its needed. Non-South Orientation: Often contextual factors preclude a precise southern orientation (or, as we saw above, due south may not be optimal). For our example building, rotating it 45 degrees increased the optimal shading length by 20%. Office Building: This building type has higher internal loads, and therefore higher internal heat gain. It requires less heating, and benefits less from solar gain than a residence. For our example building, the optimal shading length was 1.5 meters (4.9 ft.) twice what the rule of thumb would recommend. In this case, we would want to consider additional strategies to reduce solar heat gains, such as a brise soleil or better glass. Whats Happening? In all cases, shading becomes more or less necessary depending on the moves that the architect has made elsewhere. Elements like shading devices cannot be optimized in isolation: they are an integral part of the buildings environmental response. The goal is to design an envelope that strikes the right balance between letting heat in and allowing it to escape and that balance depends upon all factors of the design, including not only shading, but also building geometry, envelope properties, and the amount of glazing.

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Rule 3: Glazing Ratios

Glazing Ratio - Triple Glazing

The Rule Like shading designs, there are numerous rules of thumb for finding the right amount of glazing. Some versions provide detailed recommendations based upon climate zone or latitude. In its simplest form, the rule is often stated like this: In cold climates, provide 0.19 to 0.38 sq.m. (2 to 4 sq.ft.) of south glazing per sq.m. (10.8 sq.ft.) of floor area. In temperate climates, provide 0.11 to 0.25 sq.m. (1.2 to 2.7 sq.ft.) of south glazing per sq.m. (10.8 sq.ft.) of floor area.
Glazing Ratio - Triplecan Glazing The thinking is that higher amounts of south-facing glazing provide beneficial solar gain in cold climates. Glazing Ratio - Double Glazing

WHEN IT WORKS Standard double glazing (optimal south glazing ratio is 22%, within expected range)

Glazing Ratio - Triple Glazing Glazing Ratio - Triple Glazing Glazing Ratio - Double Glazing

WHEN IT MISSES High performance glazing (optimal south glazing ratio is 56%, above expected range)

Glazing Ratio - Double Glazing Glazing Ratio - Double Glazing When it Works Like shading, this rule works well for south-facing, externally-loaded buildings with typical construction. For a simple single-family residence in Paris, France, shown here, the rule of thumb suggested a south glazing ratio between 20% and 46%. The optimal glazing ratio fell within this range when we specified standard double glazing in combination with shading. It should be noted, however, that the large range makes it difficult for a designer to find the best design by rule of thumb alone.

When it Misses We fell outside of the suggested glazing ratios in a number of cases: for instance, when we used high-performance glazing or more extensive shading strategies. With better glass, the optimal south glazing ratio increased to 55%.
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