Assessment of building façade performance in-terms of daylighting and associated energy consumption in architectural spaces

F Ahmadi,S Malekpour-Kolbadinezhad,F Ghafari,A Mortezaei

doi:10.4314/jasem.v22i8.22

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of vertical and horizontal shading devices on the quality of daylight in buildings and the associated energy saving. Excessive daylight in architectural spaces contributes negatively to the energy consumption in buildings. Blinds and shading devices are good solutions to attenuate the surplus amount of daylight in spaces. Accordingly, this study evaluates the effect of shading devices on the amount of light flux and the associated solar energy in buildings. It estimates the energy consumption attributed to lighting spaces for three common positions of shading devices. Computer simulation strategy was undertaken to correlate the illuminance level in spaces with room geometry and architectural shading elements. The Holophane model for lighting calculations was used to estimate the average illuminance level on workplane and correlate it with the expected saving energy in buildings. The study concluded that there is an optimal orientation for shading devices that keeps the internal illuminance level within the acceptable range with minimum amount of solar heat gain.Keywords: Shading device, Daylight Illuminance, Heat gain, Computer simulation, Energy consumption

Highlights

Very innovative approaches have been adopted to enhance the performance of building facades and to obtain productive environments for building occupants
Good daylighting design integrated with solar heat gain can result in substantial energy saving in spaces (Li-Danny and Lam-Joseph, 2003)
This study aims at assessing the performance of different positions of shading devices to find the optimal situation in terms of good daylighting with minimum amount of heat gain in spaces

Summary

Introduction

Very innovative approaches have been adopted to enhance the performance of building facades and to obtain productive environments for building occupants. This study aims at assessing the performance of different positions of shading devices to find the optimal situation in terms of good daylighting with minimum amount of heat gain in spaces. They primarily focus on the effect of shading devices on light distribution and the quality of daylighting in spaces (Freewan et al, 2009; Alzoubi, 2005). The optical and thermal performance of glazing has been integrated with shading devices to keep good level of illuminance in spaces in many recent studies (Breitenbach et al, 2001) These studies consider the self-responsive of façade parameters as one way of blocking the unnecessary amount of light and heat gain from the sun.

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