Whole Building Annual Energy Analysis of Air Curtain Perform- ance in Commercial Building

A common energy code solution to reducing energy loss from air infiltration through building entrance has been requiring a vestibule in climate zones 3 – 8. However, a vestibule is costly and takes extra building space. In comparison, air curtain is less expensive and designed to prevent outdoor air infiltration while permitting an unobstructed pedestrian entryway. This study investigated the impact of building entrance equipped with air curtain on whole building energy usage for the US DOE medium office reference building. 336 computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted to characterize the infiltration characteristics of air curtain. The infiltration correlations were then applied for the prediction of annual whole building infiltrations and energy use. It is found that the whole building annual energy use for the air curtain door is less than the single door in the climate zone 1-3, and the vestibule door in the climate zone 3-8.