ABSTRACT
Buildings worldwide account for a surprisingly high 40% of global energy consumption (Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 2009). Both residential and commercial buildings account for approximately 23% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions (Building and Construction, 2011). Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) consumes nearly 33% of total energy consumption of commercial buildings in Australia (CIE, 2007). Building fabric, particularly, type of building constructions and glazing play a key role to reduce the energy consumption of the building. Ciancio and Beckett (2013) highlighted the use of sustainable building material such as Rammed earth wall to reduce the use of HVAC and to achieve a comfortable living space. Rammed earth walls have low thermal resistance, but high thermal mass compared to light weight construction. However, thermal resistance is not the only factor responsible for providing a comfortable living environment (Allinson & Hall, 2007; Faure & Le Roux, 2012). Studies in New South Wales, Australia and in West Argentian, Galcia and Spain (Page et al. 2011; Larsen et al. 2002; Orosa & Oliveira 2012) indicated that
compliance for energy efficiency of a single storey commercial office building (17 m × 8 m) is being assessed by Section J Verification method (JV3) using DesignBuilder thermal simulation with different construction details including lightweight, heavy weight and rammed earth construction. The Energy performance of the rammed earth built commercial office building is also compared with light weight and heavy weight constructions in Sub-tropical (Climate zone 2), tropical (Climate zone 1) and temperate climate (Climate zone 6) of Australia.
