Assessing different glazing to achieve better lighting performance of office buildings in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to assess different glazing types and in order to achieve better illuminance levels. A real office building in Dubai was chosen to act as a case study. Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) simulation software was used and was validated by calibration of the real measurement of air temperature and lux value against the predicted readings. The simulation assessed the performance of many strategies including krypton, xenon gas filled double glazing, reflective coating glazing, photovoltaics glazing, white powder glazing, 400 MM projection shade, begonia panels, human eye panels, mirrored begonia panels, insect-eye panel and Mashrabiya. The paper revealed many interesting findings, for instance, single glazing provides a lux value of 300–500 in the UAE which is considered visually comfortable. It was also concluded that the use of Mashrabiya as tinted glazing could lower the cooling load by 23%. Filling the glazing with gases such as krypton or xenon can help to improve the lux value and lower the U-value for office buildings in the UAE. The results will inspire architects and designers not only in UAE, but similar countries share environmental and climatically contexts.