Sam C M Hui

Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong · Department of Construction Technology and Engineering

Building information modelling (BIM) is a collaborative working process using digital models to support virtual design and construction (VDC) which can streamline project delivery workflow and improve building performance. The use of BIM to provide data for energy performance evaluation and sustainability assessment is known as Green BIM. In recent...

Building information modelling (BIM) has grown significantly in the world and has become a very important trend to support the development of virtual design and construction (VDC) which can streamline integrated project delivery workflow and improve business performances and productivity throughout the total lifecycle of building assets. It is beli...

Vertical greening systems are also known as green walls, living walls, or green facades. They are considered a sustainable/green building design approach and are becoming increasingly popular in the world. By using the natural processes of the vegetation, they can contribute to mitigating urban heat island, enhancing building's thermal performance,...

Lifts and escalators are very important for urban cities like Hong Kong, for the operation and functioning of high-rise buildings and other facilities. These transportation systems constitute a significant part of the electrical power demand and energy consumption in buildings. However, the information about their energy performance and energy savi...

Green roofs are living vegetation installed on roofs and can provide many environmental, economic and social benefits to the community. In recent years, green roofs have rapidly become a key green development tool and design features in many urban cities in the world and have been widely applied in academic institutions. This research aims to asses...

Indoor living walls are becoming increasingly popular as they can provide good aesthetic effects and other environmental benefits. This research aims to analyse the environmental performance of indoor living walls by developing analytical models using embodied energy (EE) and carbon (EC). To assess the environmental impacts, a system of accounts is...

Green roof systems are living vegetation installed on roofs that can provide many environmental and social benefits for achieving low-carbon high-performance buildings. They could contribute positively to more liveable cities by providing green spaces, mitigating urban heat island effect, reducing air quality problems, enhancing stormwater manageme...

Indoor living walls are becoming increasingly popular in buildings as they can provide good aesthetic effects and other environmental benefits. Understanding of their environmental impacts is important for planning and designing effective living walls. The main objective of this research is to apply the theory of embodied energy and carbon for asse...

Underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems use an underfloor supply plenum located between the structural floor slab and a raised floor system to supply conditioned air through floor diffusers or terminal units directly into the building's occupied zone. If designed properly, they have the potential to enhance energy efficiency, indoor air quality...

本論文握要地介紹香港建築節能的重要概況，並且仔細分析其最新趨勢和未來發展。若要全面提升建築物能源效益，必須了解香港都市能源使用的特點，研究各類建築的實際節能潛力和重點，以及掌握最新節能技術的利用。通過制訂相關政策和建築物能源標籤的策略，可以讓節能工作更深入為人們接受。透過建立能源信息系統和提升能源大數據分析技術，可以有效監測和評估建築物的能源用途與需求狀況。採用智能設備和智能操作(例如智能電 錶、智能照明、能量回收和變速/變頻)，可以達到更佳的智能效率使建築物發揮高性能，這樣不單能夠節約能源，而且還可以提高經濟效益和建築環境質量。

Many countries are now developing policies and measures to promote zero or low carbon buildings. However, as a clear definition of zero carbon building (ZCB) and effective evaluation methods for buildings' carbon footprints are not available, people are often confused about the performance of ZCBs. This research investigates the meaning of ZCBs and...

Transitional spaces refer to those spaces located in-between interior and exterior environments acting as both buffer spaces and physical links, such as entrance canopies, foyers, lift lobbies, corridors, stairwells, etc. As transitional spaces may constitute a significant portion of the building volume and have large implications to occupants' exp...

Green living wall is an emerging new technology and a sustainable design strategy for high performance green buildings. By using the natural processes of the vegetation, it can provide the potential benefits for mitigating urban heat island, enhancing building's thermal performance and improving air quality. For densely populated urban cities like...

Building sector is a major contributor of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions in the world. Nowadays, many countries are developing policies and measures to promote zero or low carbon buildings with the aim to reduce the carbon emissions and ecological footprints. However, as a clear definition of zero carbon building (ZCB) and effective evaluation...

As hotel energy consumption is affected by many technical, operational and managerial factors, it is often not possible to use the traditional benchmarking methods such as energy utilization index (EUI) in a meaningful way. This research applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) for assessing hotel energy performance in Hong Kong. A simple and basic...

These guidelines highlight the important considerations for green roof planning, design, installation and maintenance, and provide guidance as to how they can be accommodated in the final green roof scheme. They aim to promote awareness of green roofs, facilitate effective planning, design and implementation of sustainable green roof projects and s...

The main objective of this research study is to investigate the energy audit process and energy management opportunities for church buildings in Hong Kong. The aim is to develop practical information and guidelines for promoting energy conservation in these buildings. Reducing the church’s energy use will save money, decrease greenhouse gas emissio...

近年世界各地都積極發展「零碳/低碳」建築，以達到節能減排及提高環保意識之目的。因為建築物是溫室氣體和碳排放的主要來源，所以未來建築節能和減碳排放成為大勢所趨。本論文深入剖析零碳建築的定義和相關概念，並且闡述了零碳建築的設計策略及意義，同時從建築和工程設計的觀點上，探討如何促進零碳建築的技術，以及在香港的發展情況。

Chilled ceiling systems are a relatively new approach to cooling and they have been applied in Europe and other countries for many years. The technology is based on ceiling-based radiant cooling panels coupled with chilled water pipes or coils. By combing convection and radiation, these systems have the potential to enhance thermal comfort and redu...

Green roof and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are two technologies that could contribute to sustainable building development and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. When they are combined together on the building roof, it can enhance their functions and effectiveness by cooling and shading effects. This paper explains the major findings of a re...

Green roofs can provide several environmental benefits in urban cities and can also create habitat for living organisms thus help to enhance biodiversity. At present, many green building assessment methods have considered green roofs as a desirable sustainable design feature, however, the approach to assess the biodiversity aspect in these methods...

世界上許多城市正在努力改善城市綠化和促進都市農業，以提高可持續性。通過推展綠色屋頂及都市農業，是有可能為城市建築實現環境、社會和經濟的可持續性，因為它可以有助於緩解環境問題，增強社區功能和發展城市糧食系統。本文介紹了一項研究，探討屋頂綠化及都市農業應用在像香港般的城市之情況。探討了屋頂都市農業的好處和潛力，並簡單描述在世界上的一些實際例子經驗。研究了城市建築的特點和限制，也探討了香港的實際情況。希望這研究資料可以幫助促進可持續建築和城市環境。 Many urban cities in the world are trying to enhance sustainability by improving urban greenery and promoting urban farming....

Heat stress is a recognized hazard for construction workers. To ensure safety and health of the workers, it is important to study the heat stress and thermal environment in construction sites, and develop practical solutions to avoid adverse health effects and accidents. In typical construction sites, the employees have to work long hours in therma...

Exergy analysis is a useful thermodynamic technique for assessing and improving the efficiency of processes and systems. By examining the exergy destruction properties, it is possible to optimize the environmental and economic performance of the systems. This research applies exergy analysis technique to investigate and optimize the performance of...

Many urban cities in the world are trying to enhance sustainability by improving urban greenery and promoting urban farming. By installing green roofs with urban farming, it is possible to achieve environmental, social and economic sustainability for the buildings in urban cities because it can contribute to the mitigation of environmental problems...

Green roof systems are living vegetation installed on the roofs and can provide many environmental and social benefits for achieving low carbon high performance building. This paper describes the major findings of a research to develop technical guidelines for green roof systems in Hong Kong. The current knowledge and latest trends of green roof te...

Benchmarking is the continuous activity of identifying, understanding and adapting best practice and processes that will lead to superior performance. It is becoming a key methodology for the assessment of energy efficiency opportunity. The process of energy benchmarking is very useful not only to building operation and management, but also to plan...

Hotel buildings in Hong Kong use significant amount of energy and the potential for energy savings is large. However, the energy performance of hotel buildings is difficult to evaluate and compare because they have different building designs, functional facilities and operational requirements. To promote better and more effective management and des...

Zero energy building (ZEB) and zero carbon building (ZCB) are general terms applied to a building with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions, respectively. In recent years, ZEB and ZCB have attracted much attention in many countries because they are considered as an important strategy to achieve energy conservation and reduce emissi...

Hong Kong often faces stormwater problems during the rainy season. The heavy rainstorm could cause flooding and serious damages to the society. To tackle this, the Government has to make large investment in drainage and flood control projects which have significant socioeconomic implications. The research findings in other countries indicated that...

To promote energy efficiency for residential buildings in Hong Kong, a research has been conducted to investigate the characteristics of energy consumption in the residential buildings and develop a suitable energy labelling system for assessing the building energy performance. The aims of the research are to review worldwide experience, study the...

Evaporative cooling is an environmentally friendly and energy efficient cooling method that only uses water as the working fluid to cool air through the simple evaporation of water. It is a technology that could substantially reduce the airconditioning cooling energy requirement in buildings and provide other important environmental benefits. Howev...

Many cities are facing problems of urban heat island and lack of greenery space. Green roofs can help mitigate the adverse effects and bring the nature back to the urban area. To apply them effectively, it is important to evaluate the constraints and identify critical factors for planning and designing the green roofs. Modular green roofs have a go...

Lighting system is very important for university classrooms and other educational facilities because it affects the learning environment and energy management of the universities. With growing concerns on energy efficiency and increasing demands to enhance the physical environment of classrooms, there is an urgent need to improve the lighting syste...

Sustainable building is an abstract and broad concept encompassing many issues and thinking, with the aim to minimise adverse environmental impacts and promote resources eco-efficiency. In order to apply and achieve sustainable building in hot and humid climates, efforts must be put into understanding the local climate, and integrating appropriate...

Climate change is now a major concern in the world and global warming due to increased greenhouse gas emissions poses the most severe problem for governments today. To mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, many countries are trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through energy conservation policies. As the building sector is a major c...

This paper explains the basic concept of building automation and control system (BACS), examines the latest trends in the related technologies, and describes the challenges and future directions of the building control industry. It is believed that the development trend of BACS is greatly influenced by the advancement and blooming of information te...

Green roof systems are living vegetation installed on the roofs and could contribute positively to the mitigation of urban heat island and enhancement of building thermal and environmental performance. Research study has been carried out to investigate the green roof technology and research in the world, with the aim to develop practical informatio...

Thin film coatings can be applied to windows in existing buildings for solar control and energy-saving purposes. By controlling the entrance of solar radiation through the windows in a spectrally selective manner, it is possible to save energy in air conditioning and enhance the indoor comfort level. This research investigates the properties of thi...

Sustainable design of buildings and building services systems requires careful consideration of local climatic conditions and characteristics. Without good information and understanding of the local climate, it is not possible to study and achieve optimal building design and efficient building services operation. At present, the building designers,...

Prefabrication techniques have been applied to residential buildings in Hong Kong for many years. Most of them are used on structural elements; prefabrication of building services components and their integration with architectural and structural elements are not yet fully explored. Well-planned prefabrication can help reduce construction time and...

Summary Conservation of historic buildings is significant to a society for protecting its cultural resources and preserving important heritage. To promote the active use and care of historic buildings, attention must be paid to the design and management of building services systems. Upgrading of the building services systems requires creativity to...

This paper introduces a concept of robustness of an air distribution method, which is defined as being capable of meeting the ventilation requirements during varying operational conditions. The robustness performance may be particularly important when the system allows individual control of the supply air parameters. As a preliminary example, plenu...

Site offices are essential provisions for all construction works including building and civil engineering projects. Their design and operation are different from normal buildings since they are temporary structures and need to cater for the particular site conditions. If sustainability and environmental performance are not considered adequately in...

Building energy simulation is playing an increasingly important role in building energy codes. This paper investigates the important underlying issues affecting the use of building energy simulation for enhancing building energy codes. The background and development of building energy codes is described. The rationale and important issues of perfor...

Energy efficiency in buildings is critical to achieving sustainable development in a society. This paper presents an overview of the key issues and developments of energy efficiency and environmental assessment for buildings in Hong Kong. The current situation of building energy consumption and related energy efficiency programmes are explained. Th...

Energy performance contracting is a financing technique that raises money for investments in energy efficiency that is based on future savings. It enables money that will be saved as a result of introducing a new energy-efficient measure to be used to offset the cost of financing, installing and operating that measure. In recent years, the techniqu...

This study and report was commissioned by the Gammon Skanska Limited to provide an assessment of their construction site offices to help formulate the strategy for planning and design of green site offices. This work reflects a collaborative development process between the company and the University of Hong Kong, with the aim to promote green build...

To assess the environmental sustainability of buildings, a number of technological, ecological and socio-cultural factors are involved. Investigation on the existing building environmental assessment methods in the world shows that the building's energy performance is usually the key element in the evaluation process and will constitute a significa...

This paper investigates the nature and concept of performance-based approach in building design control with particular focus on building energy efficiency. The meaning of performance-based approach is explained and the current developments of performance-based building energy codes in some representative countries are described. Experience in thes...

This paper describes the sustainability concept of HVAC systems and discusses how underfloor air conditioning systems can be used to enhance the sustainability performance of commercial buildings. Possible benefits, flexibility and economic issues of underfloor air conditioning are discussed. Important design considerations of such approach are exp...

This paper investigates the concept of low energy building, examines how urban density might affect building energy design in high density cities, and discuss the strategies for low energy building design in densely populated areas. Using Hong Kong as a case study, the characteristics of dense building development and the major factors affecting lo...

Holography provides a medium for creative visual experiences in space and scale. It bas been firmly established as a tool for scientific and engineering studies. It could be creatively used in architecture and building design as a practical device and as a form of art. Basic principles and features of holography are explained. Designs of the hologr...

This paper describes the basic concepts of green building and discusses the role of HVAC for ensuring high performance sustainable buildings in design and operation. The design strategies for effective and green HVAC systems are explained and the new emerging HVAC technologies for green buildings are described. It is hoped that HVAC designers and o...

This paper discusses the needs of capacity building for energy efficient buildings in China and explains the potential of using the World Wide Web for improving the education and information programmes. A Web-based information system has been developed at The University of Hong Kong for the dissemination and promotion of energy efficient technologi...

This paper investigates building energy efficiency standards in Hong Kong and mainland China. Building energy regulations are placed in the context of broad trends in energy supply and demand, and of energy policy. The paper offers an overview of the requirements of specific energy-efficiency laws and codes for buildings, and discusses how these re...

With the growing importance of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies, there is an urgent need to integrate the new knowledge in these fields into our education system. The Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) can be an effective medium for the delivery of good quality education and training for these subjects, because of its flexibility,...

This paper reviews the current work on energy efficiency in Hong Kong and discuss the prescriptive and performance-based approaches as well as looking at the obstacles and barriers in delivering energy efficiency to the marketplace. It is recognized that more research and development work needs to be done in the territory before comprehensive build...

Dissemination and application of energy efficient technologies in buildings are often hindered by the lack of available and accessible information. The Internet and World Wide Web can provide an efficient and rich environment for communication and information management to help promoting energy efficiency in the built environment and collaboration...

China' s energy development is important to the world ' s energy market. To meet the growing energy demand and protect the environment, it is necessary to expand China ' s renewable energy market and accelerate technology uptake. As a Special Administrative Region of China, Hong Kong could play an active role in promoting renewable energy by servin...

This paper briefly introduces the basic principles of building energy simulation, explains its relationship with air-conditioning load and energy calculations, and describe the application in air-conditioning design.

針對中國的情況，宏觀地分析建築節能標準的法規體制、類別和模式，討論節能標準在氣候因素、社會經濟發展和建築業發展方面的特色。

Building energy simulation is important for the study of energy efficiency in buildings. This paper explains the basic concept of energy simulation in building design and the properties of simulation design tools. The range of applications and the limitations of existing simulation tools are described. The relationship between building design proce...

The building energy simulation computer program DOE-2 was used to carry out a parametric study of a generic high-rise air-conditioned office building in Hong Kong. A total of 28 design parameters related to the building load, the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system and the HVAC refrigeration plant were found to correlate well wi...

Renewable energy has an important role to play in meeting future energy needs and achieving sustainability. However, its diffusion and deployment is slow in the past decade due to low fossil fuel prices and barriers in the energy market. Rigorous methods are needed to accelerate the development and utilization of renewable energy, and to increase i...

The overall thermal transfer value (OTTV) standard has been implemented in Hong Kong for more than two years. It is the right time to re-examine it and to find out ways to improve its control. The concept and brief history of the OTTV method are reviewed. The methodology for developing OTTV standards is explained and the OTTV standards in some deve...

Climatic data are very important to building energy design and their development and selection should be considered carefully. The quality of climatic data and information will determine the effectiveness of building design strategies and the accuracy of design load and energy calculations. It is essential for developing countries like China to est...

This paper discusses a multi-year (MY) approach to building energy simulation and presents a pilot study in Hong Kong that investigates long-term building energy performance using MY weather data. Building energy simulations in the pilot study were carried out using the DOE-2.1E program. A set of 17 years hourly weather data (1979-95) was taken as...

Multiple regression analysis (MRA) is useful for developing energy prediction equations from the results of building energy simulation. However, if many design parameters are involved, a very large number of simulations is needed to generate data for the MRA. To tackle this problem, a randomised approach to MRA is proposed so that less simulations...

本文概述了香港和內地建築節能標準的最新狀況，分析兩地標準的特點、手法和長短處。 列舉國外節能標準的最新發展和經驗，包括美國、加拿大、日本及紐西蘭。 討論建築節能標準的未來發展方向，指出建築節能與工程建設標準的密切關係。 建議日後發展應引入較新的概念。

Measured hourly weather data for the 16-year period from 1979 to 1994 were analysed. Statistics techniques were used to develop a typical meteorological year (TMY) for building energy simulation. We used the Finkelstein-Schafer (FS) and the Kolmogrov-Smirnov (KS) two-sample statistics to analyse and select representative weather data for the formul...

The authors review the current work on energy efficiency in Hong Kong and discuss the prescriptive and performance-based approaches as well as looking at the obstacles and barriers in delivering energy efficiency to the marketplace. It is recognized that more research and development work needs to be done in the territory before comprehensive build...

The sensitivity of energy performance of office buildings in Hong Kong is examined. Basic principles of sensitivity methods for the study of building energy performance are explained. The DOE-2 building energy simulation program is used on a generic model of an office building to generate data for the study. Important input design parameters are id...

Outdoor design conditions are important for heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system design and energy estimation for buildings. A research study on the determination of outdoor design conditions for HVAC applications in Hong Kong is presented here. Methods for determining outdoor design conditions are examined and the existing data...

Computer-based simulation methods offer a powerful and flexible tool for building energy analysis. This paper presents a research study on the thermal and energy performance of commercial buildings in Hong Kong using computer modelling techniques on a microcomputer-based platform. A database of energy simulation results has been generated using a p...

Energy consumption from 1981 to 1990 has been analyzed. Buildings account for nearly half of the total energy consumption in Hong Kong. Background leading to possible legislative control of building envelope design via the overall thermal transfer value (OTTV) method is outlined. There has been concern about the proposed OTTV limits fir air-conditi...

The ASHRAE procedure for selecting a Test Reference Year (TRY) has been adopted to find an appropriate test reference year for Hong Kong. Weather data in the test reference year could be used as standard for comparing the performance and energy efficiency of different air-conditioning systems in a building. The original concept of the ASHRAE approa...

Energy consumption in Hong Kong has been analyzed. Electricity consumed in buildings accounts for about half of the total energy consumption. Much of the electricity is used for lighting and air-conditioning in buildings, particularly during the long, hot and humid summer months. Computer simulation of building performance is a valuable design tool...

There have been a growing concern about energy consumption in buildings and its implications to the environment. As a first step towards making buildings in Hong Kong more energy efficient, the Government commissioned a feasibility study on the introduction of Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) to air-conditioning buildings in Hong Kong in 1990....