This article discusses the application of thermoelectric (TE) materials in building facade systems, which can be used to create active exterior enclosures. TEs are semiconductors that have the ability to produce a temperature gradient when electricity is applied, exploiting the Peltier effect, or to generate a voltage when exposed to a temperature gradient, utilizing the Seebeck effect. TEs can be used for heating, cooling, or electricity generation. In this research, heating and cooling applications of these novel systems were explored. We designed and constructed two prototypes, where one prototype was used to study integration of TE modules (TEMs) as stand-alone elements in the facade, and one prototype was used to explore integration of TEMs and heat sinks in facade assemblies. Both prototypes were tested for heating and cooling potential, using a thermal chamber to represent four different exterior environmental conditions (-18°C, -1°C, 16°C and 32°C). The interior ambient conditions were kept constant at room temperature. The supplied voltage to facade-integrated TEMs varied from 1 to 8 V. We measured temperature outputs of TEMs for all investigated thermal conditions using thermal imaging, which are discussed in this article. The results indicate that while stand-alone facade-integrated TEMs are not stable, addition of heat sinks improves their performance drastically. Facade-integrated TEMs with heatsinks showed that they would operate well in heating and cooling modes under varying exterior environmental conditions.

Building Energy Modeling (BEM) intends to quantify buildings’ energy performance to help designers and architects better understand the environmental impacts of their decisions. Building Information Modeling (BIM) refers to a digital, model-based representation, where information about building design can be shared among different stakeholders and used during all stages of buildings’ lifecycle. The purpose of this research was to investigate integration of BEM and BIM, using one modeling and two analysis tools. Green Building Studio (GBS) and Sefaira are two performance analysis software programs, which can be used both in the form of BIM plug-in/built-in tools, as well as web applications to analyze and quantify energy performance of buildings. To capture their level of integration with BIM, an existing Campus Recreation Building on UMass Amherst campus was used as a case study to evaluate modeling processes, requirements, and workflows. Comparative analysis between modeled and actual energy consumption data was also performed to analyze accuracy of the different simulation programs. This paper discusses each tool capabilities and drawbacks in providing accurate energy analysis procedures and results.