Modelling and Validation of two Heat and Mass Transfer Model of Living Walls and Evaluation of Their Impact on the Energy Performance of a Supermarket in a Semiarid Climate

There are about 35 heat and mass transfer green roof models up to date. However, there are only four living wall models. Furthermore, there are very few studies on the impact of living walls on the building energy performance of buildings. Moreover, none of the living wall models has been validated under semiarid climate conditions and there is a lack of studies about the cooling potential of living walls in retail buildings such as supermarkets. This paper aims to adapt two well-known green roof models to be able to model the heat and mass transfer through living walls, validate both models under semiarid climate conditions, and couple both adapted and validated models to EnergyPlus. Therefore, the impact of living walls on the energy performance of an ASHRAE prototype supermarket located in Santiago of Chile is evaluated. The results show that living walls can reduce up to 24% the cooling loads of a supermarket, and the wall thermal insulation significantly diminishes the impact of the living wall.