Glazed Balconies Research Articles

Finnish glazed balconies: residents’ experience, wellbeing and use

Finnish glazed balconies: residents’ experience, wellbeing and use

Contribution of Glazed Balconies as a Passive Heating System in Contemporary Buildings in Northern Portugal

To mitigate greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming and climate change, governments have undertaken concerted efforts and established goals to restructure production and consumption patterns within the current global economy. The construction sector, which in Europe has significant energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions, recognizes adopting passive heating and cooling systems for buildings as a viable solution. The revival of vernacular passive solar strategies emerges as opportune within this context. Through dynamic simulations, this study aims to analyze and quantify the potential contribution of glazed balconies, a traditional passive heating system, to improve contemporary constructions’ thermal behavior and comfort conditions in mild temperate climates, such as in northern Portugal. Results indicate that this system can significantly enhance a building’s energy efficiency, reducing energy needs for heating and cooling by up to 47% while extending periods of thermal comfort indoors by nearly 900 h per year compared to buildings with non-glazed balconies. Proper use of natural ventilation and shading devices is essential to ensure optimal system performance and prevent overheating. This research underscores the potential of glazed balconies as a sustainable solution for enhancing contemporary buildings’ thermal-energy performance and comfort, contributing to the transition towards carbon-neutral constructions.

Energy and indoor thermal performance analysis of a glazed façade high-rise building under various Nordic climatic conditions

Research has shown that glazed buildings can have higher energy use and are more prone to overheating than other types of buildings. However, few studies have explored the performance of glazed buildings in cold climates. This article aims to evaluate the energy and indoor thermal performance of a high-rise residential building with glazed façades and balconies under Nordic climatic conditions, through a parametric study. Dynamic, whole-year simulations are used to evaluate the impact of four design parameters (with and without glazed balconies, type of balcony glazing, window to wall ratio, and building location within the Nordic region) on the energy and indoor thermal performance of the building. The results show that the building without glazed balconies outperformed that with glazed balconies. Changing from single- to double-pane glazing also helped to reduce energy use and overheating, as did lowering the window-to-wall ratio. Overheating of apartments was found to occur during the summer in five of the six locations simulated, which suggests that solar control strategies might be needed for glazed buildings even in a Nordic climate. This study highlights the importance of further research on glazed residential buildings, which are becoming more common in contexts subject to such climates.

Assessment of the impacts of balconies on indoor environmental quality in mild climate conditions, Portugal

ABSTRACT The configuration of balconies can affect the indoor environmental performance of dwellings, but there is not enough knowledge regarding how a balcony simultaneously impacts all the parameters of indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Therefore, this study aims to evaluate, for the first time, the impacts of different balcony configurations on IEQ. A comprehensive in-situ campaign was carried out on ten balconies and their contiguous rooms in a building in Porto. Air temperature, relative humidity, CO2, PM2.5 and TVOCs concentration, illuminance and sound pressure level were simultaneously monitored. The results show that an open balcony has a positive impact on hygrothermal conditions, controlled daylight illuminance, and reduced traffic noise by up to 10 dBa. The presence of a glazed balcony improved hygrothermal conditions in winter and increased the noise reduction by up to 15 dBA, but caused a reduction in the daylight of up to 64%. The rooms, in which the balcony was eliminated presented the worst hygrothermal conditions, lost the benefits of noise reduction and had an increase in daylight illuminance of up to 136%. It was also found that the impacts are interrelated and that a balcony influences the occupants’ behaviour by enhancing window opening.

Effects of double glazing, black wall, black carpeted floor and insulation on thermal performance of solar-glazed balconies

This research was conducted to evaluate energy saving and the thermal efficiency in glazed balconies and sunspace areas. The effects of double-glazing, black walls and black carpeted floors, and insulation material on the thermal efficiency of residential balconies in the cold seasons of the year were investigated. For this purpose, the interior sun walls were covered with recycled black-painted papers, and the effect of the applied insulations on the thermal performance of the glazed balcony were investigated. In addition, a model of the glazed balcony was simulated using the ANSYS/Fluent program. By numerically analyzing the simulated model, the temperature distribution inside the balcony and the air velocity due to the natural convection in the domain volume have been visualized. It was found that the maximum thermal efficiency was achieved as 42.8 % for the case where double-glazing has been applied and walls are insulated and covered with recycled black papers. Regarding the differences between the balcony air temperature and the outdoor temperature, the temperature difference was 14 °C for the situation where all insulation measures were taken and effective absorbers were used, while this value was around 9.3 °C in the case of testing only glass window application. As a consequent, by considering larger sunspaces in large buildings such as university faculties, libraries, and offices, this study reveals more research fields to be investigated and using solar energy more efficiently.

Heat resilience of apartment buildings in Korea and Germany: comparison of building design and climate

A major concern in climate adaptation is to enhance the heat resilient design of residential buildings. However, recent scientific literature addressing overheating analysis is only focussing on individual countries. In this article, we discuss how different design of representative apartment buildings in two countries influences the overheating risk or cooling demand and what conclusions can be drawn from it. This is done for a low-rise apartment building located in Germany and a high-rise building in South Korea applying building performance simulation. Both countries are located in the moderate climate zone, but regional differences in frequency of tropical nights and radiant summer days lead to significant differences in overheating intensity (800 Kh/a for the German and 5100 Kh/a for the Korean) or cooling demand (1800 kWh for the German to 1300 kWh for the Korean). The lower cooling demand but much higher overheating intensity of the Korean building compared to the German is mainly caused by the different solar heat gain due to the glazed balcony design of the Korean building where these balcony rooms are not actively cooled. On the contrary, the common internal façade insulation of Korean buildings results in a higher overheating risk compared to the German building and in addition the lower potential of passive cooling by natural ventilation due to the necessity of insect screens in Korea. The large effect of implementing heat adaptation measures on overheating risk reduction or cooling demand (up to 90%) clearly demonstrates that both buildings are far away from a heat resilient design and that heat adaptation measures can address both climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Thermal and Optical Properties of the Sunspace Casing as Factors Influencing Temperature Rise in Greenhouse Systems.

In sunspaces, there is an observable temperature rise above the external air temperature, caused by solar gains and the buffering effect of their enclosure. In addition, their external partitions form a barrier preventing the direct influence of the external environment and delaying the natural deterioration of elevation surface. In the paper, the temperature rise in a glazed balcony attached to a typical flat in a multifamily building, together with the energy demand in the living zone, were assessed with the use of dynamic computer simulations. Ten variants of the sunspace casing were analysed, with different thermal and solar energy transmittance of the glazing (which is a novel subject in the research area). This enabled us to evaluate average values of the temperature reduction factor during the year and to choose the most efficient variant of the sunspace external partitions. It turned out to be an insulated, double-glazed casing with a spectrally selective coating (type O 21), combining high insulative properties with high solar transmittance. These features allowed the temperature in the sunspace to rise by almost 10°C (compared with the external air) and lower total energy demand in the flat by 33% (compared with a flat with an open balcony).

Evaluation of the performance of enclosed balconies based on temperature monitoring

Enclosed, glazed balconies influence the energy balance of the flats thanks to the temperature rise caused by solar gains in unheated sunspaces. The potential benefits, however, may differ depending on the inhabitants’ behaviour. To evaluate these effects, internal temperature in multi-family buildings located in Zamość (a city in the eastern part of Poland) was monitored at the turn of the years 2017 and 2018. The temperature was registered with the use of iButton sensors located in flats and sunspaces. Three dwellings with the same orientation were included in the research – two with glazed balconies, differing by the area of the living space, the number of the inhabitants, and their behaviour (flats no. 1 and 2), and one with an open balcony, used for comparison (flat no. 3). Air temperature within the glazed balconies was usually higher than the external air temperature, and the sunspaces helped to reduce heat losses from the adjoining rooms by 10.7% (flat no. 1) and 26.6% (flat no. 2). The apartments also showed some differences as far as the comfort of use during summer is concerned, flat no 1 being the most prone to overheating.

Laboratory observation of interior surface heat transfer at balcony door

This paper informs about laboratory experiments studying heat transfer phenomena at the interior side of balcony doors. A well-insulated testing space representing a typical room with a balcony door equipped with floor heating and warm air heating was used. In the first step, an opaque panel with similar thermal transmittance as a triple glazed balcony door was installed in the opening for reference. A combination of temperature measurements and particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) was used here to study the surface heat transfer in detail for both types of space heat distribution and obstacles by curtains. From the measured data, the surface heat transfer coefficient along the height of the door was evaluated and discussed.

Experimental and numerical analysis on the influence of glazed balconies on energy consumption and indoor environment of communist-era flats in Romania

The purpose of the article is to study the impact of buildings balconies on the energy consumption and indoor parameters. Using both experimental and numerical approach multiple insights were found. The first part is focused on the analysis of 75 block of flats and the influence of closing the balconies on the energy efficiency. It was found out that most of the apartment’s owners have individually closed their balconies (approx. 60%) proofing that this a desired solution with multiple advantages on the energy consumption reduction. The second part of the article is meant to show using experimental measurements the impact of glazed balconies on the indoor parameters – temperature and humidity. The measurements showed that the difference between the outdoor temperature and the balcony temperature being around 15 °C for glazed balconies. This is translated by a heating energy demand reduction of up to 70% for the rooms adjacent to these buffer spaces.

Overheating assessment in flats with glazed balconies in warm-summer humid continental climate

Greenhouse systems in the form of glazed balconies may be accomplished both in the newly designed buildings and in the existing ones, raising their energy standard in a quick and inexpensive way. However, basic parameters influencing the efficiency of the systems are often chosen intuitively, not allowing to fully benefit from the sunspaces or causing overheating of the rooms and discomfort for the users. These issues are common drawbacks of passive systems and may become especially important in the aspect of anthropogenic climate changes, including temperature rise and summer heatwaves. The paper presents results of a long-term summer temperature monitoring in flats with glazed balconies of different construction. They were located in prefabricated multi-family buildings, in residential districts of Lublin and Zamość. The cities are situated in the south-eastern part of Poland, belonging to the warm-summer humid continental climate area. The monitoring enabled overheating assessment according to the concept of adaptive comfort and connecting it with the sunspace construction and the inhabitants’ behaviour. These issues are new aspects in the research area, and the work is a part of extensive studies including monitoring and dynamic simulations of dwellings with passive greenhouse systems in Poland. Practical application: Glazed balconies raise the energy standard of buildings in a quick and inexpensive way, but it is important to consider their function not only during the heating season but also in the summer. Recording of temperatures enabled the monitoring of thermal conditions in the flats and the overheating assessment. It is possible to keep the internal temperature in the rooms within the desired range thanks to the sunspace ventilation and occupants’ behaviour.

Qualitative Assessment of Fire Hazard Posed by Laminated Glass Balcony Balustrades on Fire Spread.

A qualitative assessment of fire hazard posed by laminated glass balcony balustrades was carried out through an in-depth analysis of empirical evidence from six (6) past balcony fires with glass balustrades to deduce the type of glass used and understand the mechanism for fire spread in these fire scenarios. Post-fire conditions of these balconies were studied based on their post-breakage integrity and presence of decolourisation/delamination in order to determine the type of glass used in these balconies. A visual observation of the overall fire spread during the fire and extent of damage post-fire was then carried out to determine whether there was a correlation between the type of glass used and the extent of fire spread. It was found that fire spread was mainly driven by combustible materials around the balcony construction as the fire damage on the balustrades was limited to the area in the vicinity of the combustible materials and the balustrade glass did not contribute to the fire. Given the current regulatory framework in England that limits the use of laminated glass in balcony balustrades from a fire safety perspective despite its architectural benefits and structural safety, this study shows that there is no evidence that the use of laminated glass would constitute a fire hazard when used as glazed balcony balustrading.

A Review of Balcony Impacts on the Indoor Environmental Quality of Dwellings

Balconies are an ancient architectural archetype that are being increasingly considered in multi-family buildings of high-density cities. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the impacts of balcony types on the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and energy consumption of dwellings. Of the reviewed studies, 69% were published during the last decade, making it evident that awareness of the positive impact of balcony spaces is continuously increasing. The literature review allowed us to identify three balcony spaces according to their morphology and their boundary system: open balcony (OB), glazed balcony (GB), and eliminate balcony (EB). It was concluded that these balcony types produce relevant impacts in four factors that contribute to the indoor environmental quality: thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual comfort, and acoustic comfort. Practical design recommendations and constraints were provided according to distinct climatic conditions and building technologies. This review also explored the assessment methodologies used for the optimization of the balconies on the design process. The literature highlighted the lack of a comprehensive study about the impact of balconies in mild and Mediterranean climates, as well as the knowledge limitations concerning the balance between the impacts on IEQ factors.

Thermal Performance and Comfort Condition Analysis in a Vernacular Building with a Glazed Balcony

The increase in global environmental problems requires more environmentally efficient construction. Vernacular passive strategies can play an important role in helping reducing energy use and CO2 emissions related to buildings. This paper studies the use of glazed balconies in the North of Portugal as a strategy to capture solar gains and reduce heat losses. The purpose is understanding thermal performance and comfort conditions provided by this passive heating strategy. The methodology includes objective (short and long-term monitoring), to evaluate the different parameters affecting thermal comfort and air quality, and subjective assessments to assess occupants’ perception regarding thermal sensation. The results show that the use of glazed balconies as a passive heating strategy in a climate with cold winters is viable. During the mid-seasons, the rooms with balcony have adequate comfort conditions. In the heating season, it is possible to achieve comfort conditions in sunny days while in the cooling season there is a risk of overheating. Regarding indoor air quality, carbon dioxide concentrations were low, but the average radon concentration measured was high when the building was unoccupied, rapidly decreasing to acceptable values, during occupation periods when a minimum ventilation rate was promoted. Occupants’ actions were essential to improving building behavior.

Glazed balconies and their influence on the temperature reduction factor during the heating season

Glazed buffer spaces have an important influence on the energy performance of buildings, especially in the case of dwellings located in multi-family buildings. The ability to utilize solar radiation during the heating season can be assessed with the use of the temperature reduction factor, expressing the relative temperature rise in the solar space above the outside air temperature. The paper is based on the results of the internal temperature monitoring in dwellings with glazed balconies of different envelope construction and airtightness. The dwellings were located in buildings in Lublin and Zamość, cities in the eastern part of Poland. The measurements took place from July 2017 until September 2018, and the temperature was recorded with the use of iButton sensors. The measurement results were supplemented with the weather data coming from the database of the Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Thanks to the collected data it was possible to calculate the temperature reduction factor during the subsequent months of the heating season, and to check its relationship with the factors such as the balconies’ orientation, envelope construction and airtightness or the glazing type. The analyses also included the calculation of heat losses reduction achieved thanks to the solar spaces.

Investigation of the Effects of Glazed Balconies upon Thermal Comfort in Hot Tropical Region

Investigation of the Effects of Glazed Balconies upon Thermal Comfort in Hot Tropical Region

TOTALITARIAN CULTURAL SPACE AND THE PHENOMENON OF “SOVIET BALCONIES”

Our study reveal a final list of the influence of totalitarian cultural space on the emergence of the phenomenon of “Soviet balconies” in Ukraine. 1) Lack of personal space, fear, and desire to protect yourself from the world, the state, and adverse weather conditions. Snowfalls and other factors that contribute to the desire to glaze the balcony, there are in other European countries, but there they are not perceived catastrophically against the background of the fact that the state works to help residents and in case of a dangerous situation will solve problems. Also, state regulation of heating becomes one of the reason that if a person does not want to freeze with other disenfranchised people in the state, it has a glazed balcony. To regulate this issue, it is necessary to reform the principles of public policy so that people feel more secure.2) Lack of practice of self-control, external locus control and attempts to do something only for fear of punishment. To solve the problem, it is necessary to introduce examples of positive motivation, to popularize the achievements of stakeholders.3) Lack of culture of public communication for the development of urban space. To solve this problem, it is necessary to popularize the experience of solving problems by society. A good example is the recent festival of Odessa yards, and the ethno-festival of the Krasnoselka community “Chumatsky Shlyakh”.4) False aesthetic standards that are a sign of success are large rooms, in particular a large balcony. This problem has already been solved with the help of social networks that allow you to assert yourself without the help of a balcony. But this does not solve the problem of already built balconies.

Bioelectricity production in an indoor plant-microbial biotechnological system with Alisma plantago-aquatica

The paper descibes the development of a biotechnological system for generating bioelectricity on closed balconies of buildings from living plants Alisma plantago-aquatica and soil microorganisms grown in containers with natural wetland substrate, provided with a graphite and Zn-galvanized steel electrode system. This biotechnology worked efficiently from the first days after installation and was practically at full capacity 2 weeks later. Electric power output was highest in the spring-summer and the early autumn period (at the time of the highest photosynthetic activity of plants). The highest current output was 58.6 mA at 10 Ω load. Bioelectricity generation by the biosystem was stable with slight fluctuations throughout the year in well-lighted and heated premises at a temperature of 21-26 °C, and the seasonal reduction of the bioelectricity level was 8.71%. On not-heated closed terraces and glazed balconies, with temperature fluctuations from 5 to 26 °C, the electricity production decreased in the winter period by 19.98% and 39.91% with and without adding of sulfate-reducing bacteria, respectively. The proposed system of electrodes for collection of bioelectric power is new, easy to manufacture and economical. It is resistant to waterlogged environment, and has good prospects for further improvements for more effective collection of plant-microbial bioelectricity. Maintainance of the biosystem is simple and accessible to everyone without special skills.

Spaces in-between impacts on indoor environment and energy efficiency in dwellings

Throughout history, it has always been recognised that the spaces in-between in dwellings have the advantage of working as environmental buffer spaces. The aim of this paper is to provide a literature review of the different spaces in-between in dwellings – balconies, shaded balconies and glazed balconies - and their impacts on comfort and on energy performance. The effects of the spaces in-between depend on their design, on the characteristics of the buildings and on the surroundings. They have important impacts on the four factors that contribute to the indoor environmental quality: thermal comfort, lighting comfort, acoustic comfort and indoor air quality. These factors are interrelated and the lack of balance between them can lead to poor indoor environmental conditions and to excessive energy consumption. Based on the review, a synthesis of the key environmental parameters that can be used as indicators for those factors is established. The impacts of spaces in-between on the factors and sub-factors of indoor environment are defined, considering different climatic regions. A holistic approach that conciliates all the above-mentioned factors should be a contribution to the design of spaces in-between in both new construction and rehabilitation projects, in order to achieve better indoor environment with minimum energy consumption.

Avaliação e percepção do usuário em relação ao conforto térmico e qualidade do ar em varandas com fechamento em vidros móveis situadas em uma região urbana industrializada

Atualmente uma ação muito comum nas grandes metrópoles é o fechamento com vidros móveis das aberturas das varandas residenciais. Na cidade de Vitória, ES, é constante a reclamação dos moradores acerca da presença do pó preto em suas residências. O incômodo ocasionado pela presença desse material particulado é o principal motivador da prática do fechamento das varandas na região. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar a qualidade ambiental e a percepção do morador capixaba - em relação ao conforto térmico e a qualidade do ar, residente em apartamentos com e sem fechamento em vidros móveis nas aberturas de suas varandas. A partir da definição de critérios e da posterior escolha de um condomínio residencial estrategicamente localizado, a metodologia utilizada foi estabelecida considerando duas principais fontes de obtenção de dados e informações: os usuários, através da aplicação de questionários; e de medições em campo de temperatura do ar, umidade relativa do ar e concentração de material particulado. Os resultados mostram que a concentração média diária de partículas foi maior na situação da varanda com os vidros móveis fechados do que na condição aberta. Além disso, o uso dos vidros móveis das varandas a maior parte do tempo fechados ocasiona um aumento de temperatura do ar no ambiente e desconforto térmico, o que faz com que alguns moradores recorram ao uso do ar condicionado corrompendo o propósito original da varanda em climas quentes e úmidos, que é de trazer sombreamento e ventilação natural aos espaços interiores.