Abstract:
Living wall systems are the vegetated wall systems where growth layer is located behind
the plant and integrated onto the wall. They started to be used widely due to their many
benefits such as increasing the energy efficiency of the building. Living wall can
contribute to wall’s thermal performance by its shading, insulation and wind protection
effects. However, there are limited studies which is done by simulation to investigate its
insulation effect. In the previous studies, its shading effect is usually simulated, and
evaporation and transpiration were not taken into account which are the major effect of
being a live mechanism. In this study, it is aimed to see the effect of living wall’s
orientation and the plant types on interior thermal conditions, by using a microclimate
simulation program ENVI-met. ENVI-met provides a vegetation model that simulates
evapotranspiration and interaction between the outdoor microclimate with indoor
climate. In this context, the temperature differences that occur between the wall layers
and interior surface temperature of the living walls are compared with those of bare wall
for two cities in Turkey which are representatives of hot and humid climate and
temperate climate. Thus, it has been seen especially the west and south facades of the
building and also the plant types according to their leaf area index (LAI) affect the
efficiency of the building depending on the climate
