Abstract
The primary goal of this research is to identify the impacts of window design on the energy use in buildings which takes up about 25% of the total energy consumption. Recently, efficient use of energy is gaining more importance in buildings. Window design, especially being dependent on glazing performance choices, is an important factor for reducing energy consumption in most of the buildings. It also is influenced by the latitude of the site and window orientation. This paper aims at identifying the influence of Window performance indicators(U-value, SHGC), orientation and latitude on the building energy consumption with systematically designed simulations. Comparative study has been performed for five different locations; Greenland, Korea, Singapore, Argentina and Chile along with the different window U-value and SHGC values. The results show that optimum window system with properly coordinated window performance indicators(U-value, SHGC), orientation achieves dramatic reduction of energy consumptions. Windows with low U-value could reduce heating loads and high SHGC could reduce cooling loads. The study also verifies that the windows installed at south facade is more energy efficient in the northern hemisphere while windows facing north is more energy efficient in the southern hemisphere.
