The effect of shading design and materials on building energy demand

Building sector in most countries around the world requires large amounts of heating and cooling energy. Indeed, building cooling loads due to solar gains are responsible for approximately half of global cooling load. In addition, windows are considered as one of the important sources of energy loss in buildings. In order to minimize this loss, shading devices can be installed in the exterior part of the window to reduce solar heat. The objective of this study is to investigate the simultaneous effect of glazing, shading materials, and configuration of shading devices on total building energy consumption in different climate regions in the United States. To achieve this objective, a typical residential building was selected to assess the effect of the aforementioned parameters on total energy consumption in five main climate regions. A series of simulations were conducted using EnergyPlus simulation program to quantify energy consumption in each scenario and determine the most energy efficient glazing and shading materials as well as configuration of the shading device. Different types of window glazing (including clear, Low-Iron, Ref-B tint, Low-E clear and Low-E tint with 6 mm thickness) as well as different materials for shading devices (including PVC, aluminum and wood) were considered in this study. Moreover, the effect of five different shading device configurations, including horizontal and oriented overhang, vertical fin and combination of them were investigated. Results showed installing vertical fins and horizontal overhang shading devices in buildings located in Miami and Atlanta do not have a significant effect on annual energy consumption. However, combining these two overhang shading configurations will reduce energy consumption. In addition to shading configurations, it was found that Ref-B tint glazing material along with wood shading material reduced annual energy consumption by approximately 11.6% in Miami. However in Atlanta, total energy consumption was reduced by approximately 7% in the case of using Low-E tint glazing material along with wood shading material. No significant decrease in energy consumption was observed in cold climates.Non UBCUnreviewedFacultyOthe