Energy Performance of External versus Internal Shading Devices in Residential Buildings

Abstract

In the traditional concept, the performance of internal shading system is inferior compared with that of external one. In actual projects, however, external shadings are subject to severe limitations due to the damage of artistic appearance in building design, the high initial investment and the difficult maintenance in the late stage. Besides, in residential buildings the shading measures are single, mainly including external and internal shadings, and the window types are quite similar. Therefore, through theoretical calculation and experimental test in this paper, the feasibility of substituting the internal shading system with high reflectivity for the external one in residential buildings was analyzed. Such replacement can reduce the cost of shading system and maintain the artistic appearance of building facades. Thus, there are few limitations on the appearance design of a building considering the shading performance.