Transparent part design optimizations in buildings towards energy saving based on customized radiation sky dome model

Abstract

In consideration of the sun's path in architectural design, the window systems can be regarded as heat traps, to introduce solar radiation into the buildings in winter. On the contrary, the solar radiation passing through the glazing into rooms significantly increases the cooling energy requirements in summer. Due to the optimum solar heat gain magnitudes varying by season in the buildings, a tradeoff solution needs to be explored between the solar radiation interception in summer and the solar heat gain in winter. Here, we separated out the beneficial and the harmful solar radiations from the radiation sky dome model, based on the air temperature data. Then, a new customized radiation sky dome model was created, according to the difference value between the beneficial and harmful solar radiations over a year. Furthermore, the neighboring buildings with various volume and number combinations were assigned to surround the study building, to explore the shading performance on the study building cast by the surrounding building(s). In this work, the average energy saving rate for six chosen study buildings is about 14%, based on the passive strategy of the customized radiation sky dome model.