Glazing selection procedure for office building retrofitting in the Mediterranean climate in Spain

Abstract

In building retrofitting works, window openings are generally the first thermal envelope’s element to be assessed, both technically and economically. This is of special interest in office buildings characterized by a high glazed area, energy consumption, and the potential use of natural light. This paper explores the criteria for window selection where glazing parameters are selected independently, and in the market, where glass is defined by the number of glass panels or its emissivity. A glazing selection procedure, based on both the parameter’s direction and order of influence, has been proposed by combining the thermal transmittance, the solar heat gain coefficient and the visible transmittance parameters in the Mediterranean climate in Spain (Barcelona, Seville, and Malaga). It was used a methodology not considered before which also let designers know the thermal behavior of each office room throw glazing. The binomial and visible transmittance procedure of selection generated the highest number of office room orientations and configurations low CO2 emissions. The difference between placing all low emission glazing and the best option in each room does not significantly reduce emissions in both building configurations (N–S and W-E). Finally, the building configuration does not alter the selection pattern. However, corner offices with windows in two directions have a high significance in the building emissions, so they are singularly considered in each Mediterranean climate studied.