Impact of shape, occupation and external parameters in the overall thermal performance of office buildings in Santiago, Chile

Office buildings in Santiago do not respond adequately to their climate context, which brings issues of discomfort at indoor spaces or high energy consumption in order to achieve comfortable conditions. The paper intends to establish certain relationships between several parameters registered on different office buildings in Santiago in order to address the issue about how different variables related to design and operation of the buildings impact on its overall performance. This is carried out via Principal Component Analysis of selected parameters registered inside several floors within representative office building types present in the city. Preliminary findings suggest that internal conditions hold no relation with external parameters due to the reliance on active air-conditioning systems; or with shape parameters registered on-site. On the other hand it is possible to identify occupation as a key parameter on workspace thermal performance and overheating as a relevant issue to consider at design stages.