Biomimetic adaptive electrochromic windows for enhancing building energy efficiency

Abstract

The concept of bioinspiration, which is a new design paradigm inspired by solutions found in biological systems, has led to many innovative designs in different fields in recent years. This study presents the design of biomimetic adaptive façade (BAF) to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings, which approximately accounts for 40% of the global energy consumption. A comprehensive analysis was conducted to identify the similarities between the mechanism of electrochromic window and chameleon’s skin. From that, the design of the BAF system was proposed based on the bioinspired analogy. In addition, a building energy modeling software (EnergyPlus), a Python package (Eppy toolkit), and a decision-making assistance tool were integrated into a computational tool to support the design and evaluate the feasibility of BAF systems. A medium office building was used as a case study to validate the capability of the proposed approach for two weather conditions in Melbourne, Australia, and Texas, United State. The results show that the proposed BAF can reduce energy consumption by 9.3–23.5% and 14.6–19.6% for Melbourne and Texas, respectively, compared to the benchmarking facades. The effect of window-to-wall ratio and orientation of the BAF system on the energy-efficiency and cost-efficiency of buildings were also investigated. The results confirm the potential of BAF in improving building energy efficiency.