Abstract
Purpose: Various studies to solve the problem of increased energy consumption in the buildings are being carried out recently. Especially, the economic feasibility and insulation performance of the air-cap have been verified so that various studies regarding the reduction of building energy consumption have been carried out. However, previous studies regarding the air-cap were only carried out based on the verification of its insulation performance according to the size and attachment position of the air-cap. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to suggest a detachable air-cap module for improving the performance of the windows, evaluate the performance based on cooling, heating and light environments and verify its effectiveness through a real-scale testbed. Method: In this study, the energy saving performance in the circumstance where there is no attachment of an air-cap (Case 1), the circumstance where there is the attachment of air-cap on the glass surface of window (Case 2) and the circumstance where there is the attachment of an air-cap on the window frame (Case 3) were compared in order to verify the performance of the detachable air-cap module (Case 4), and the electricity consumption of cooling, heating and lighting equipment to maintain the appropriate indoor temperature and Illuminance for each case was calculated and utilized as indicators for the performance evaluation. Result: The result of this study is as follows. 1) In this study, the detachable air-cap module which was easily detachable through the principle of the magnet was suggested. 2) When Case 4 is applied, the electricity consumption of cooling and heating equipment can be reduced by 27.5%, 13.2% and 3.4% in comparison with Case 1, Case 2 and Case 3 respectively. 3) When the air-cap is applied to the window, the lighting energy consumption increases by 4 % in comparison to the non application of the air-cap, and this factor or aspect should be considered when applying the air-cap. 4) According to the performance evaluation result in consideration of cooling, heating and light environments, Case 4 demonstrates an energy saving ratio of 22.6%, 10.6% and 2.7% in comparison to Case 1, Case 2 and Case 3 respectively, indicating that it is effective for improving the performance of windows.
