干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

This paper summarizes the process and results of simulating the main researchers' residence at the Sweeny Granite Mountain Desert Research Center (GMDRC), a research and education field station, at an elevation of 4200 ft in the Mojave desert of Southern California. The building, independent of external electric supply and passively heated and cooled using the strategies of direct gain, thermal mass walls and night ventilation, was simulated using DOE-2.1E and SUNCODE 6.0 programs. The calibrated simulation models were then used to explore the effect of shading, night ventilation, solar radiation, conduction and glazing area on the buildings thermal performance by simplified comfort calculations based on ASHRAE comfort zone.