Abstract
With the increasing awareness of building energy efficiency, indoor environment quality for human wellbeing and working efficiency, efforts have intensified in to inventing intelligent building components. This paper provides a first step in developing a novel multi-effect smart window system, which achieves enhanced energy efficiency and an improved indoor luminous environment by integrating a Transparent Insulation Material (TIM) structure incorporating a Thermotropic material. This system automatically regulates the admittance of solar heat and natural light into the building by responding to a changing environment while taking advantage of the increased thermal resistance and scattered daylight of window integrated TIM. A comprehensive workflow via EnergyPlus and RADIANCE was used to accurately predict the luminous and energy performance of applying the smart window system on a typical south-facing office under selected climates (London, Stockholm, Rome and Singapore). The effect of the optical properties and transition temperature of thermotropic material on building performance was explored in detail. Annual simulation results predict that, with a careful selection of the Thermotropic material properties, installing the TT PS-TIM window system is able to yield up to a 27.1% energy saving when compared with a conventional double glazed window, under the modelled Rome climate. TT PS-TIM windows also provide dynamic daylight control, resulting in increased daylight availability with the percentage of working hours that fall into the UDI500–2000 lx range increasing to 62.3%. The results of this research provide guidance for the next step of the material design and development that seek to balance energy efficiency and solar and daylight control through the use of thermotropic materials.
Highlights
Buildings are responsible for one third of the worldwide GreenHouse Gas emissions (GHG) and 30–40% of the primary energy consumption [1,2]
This paper provides a first step in developing a novel multi-effect smart window system, which achieves enhanced energy efficiency and an improved indoor luminous environment by integrating a Transparent Insulation Material (TIM) structure incorporating a Thermotropic material
To overcome the issues with traditional TIMs and TT windows, in this project we have developed a novel TT Parallel Slat TIM (PS-TIM) smart window system, which applies thermotropic (TT) material encapsulated within the slats of PS-TIM between the panes of double glazing windows
Summary
Buildings are responsible for one third of the worldwide GreenHouse Gas emissions (GHG) and 30–40% of the primary energy consumption [1,2]. Windows in building en velopes are exceptionally important elements through which reduction in energy consumption and improvement of indoor comfort level can be achieved [5,6] This is because windows contribute significantly to the heat gain and loss from a building’s enclosure and determine the quantity, quality and distribution of daylight that penetrates into a space [7,8]. Wong et al [12] simulated the performance of TIM glazing that incorporated a 22 mm polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) capillary slab on a south facing façade The annual results they predicted for the climate of London showed that, when compared to standard double glazing, daytime in ternal temperature swings were reduced and up to a 6.1% heating en ergy saving in the winter could be achieved. The reduced solar and visible transmittance increased the predicted energy required for space heating and artificial lighting when the solar radiation and/or outdoor illuminance was low
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