The Effect of Fixed External Shading Devices on Daylighting and Thermal Comfort in Residential Building

Abstract

Building shading devices can improve the thermal comfort in indoor environment, and also reduce cooling and heating energy consumption in dry and hot climate. This study proposes the different kind of window’s fixed shading devices for energy consumption under near-extreme summer and winter conditions by conducting residential building energy simulations in Shiraz climate. Which fixed shading devices optimal configurations that give maximum energy consumption can be used in Shiraz climate. The study was based on modeling-simulation experiments where Ecotect models resented the actual building energy with and without shading devices to reducing heating and cooling load and peak consumption. The results obtained confirmed the accuracy of the model and the suitability of (horizontal, eggcrate and geometrical) of shading devices in reducing the solar gains in summer with reduced blocking of solar radiation in winter. In all cases it has been proven that excessive obstruction may yield an excessive reduction in a range of illuminances between 500 and 2000 lux, increasing lighting energy consumption. At the end results showed that horizontal, geometrical and eggcrate have the best function according to reduce energy and have enough day lighting in the zones in shiraz climate.