THE IMPACT OF TRANSLUCENT FABRIC SHADES AND CONTROL STRATEGIES ON ENERGY SAVINGS AND VISUAL QUALITY
Open Access
- Author:
- Wankanapon, Pimonmart
- Graduate Program:
- Architectural Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 21, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Richard George Mistrick, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Richard George Mistrick, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
James Freihaut, Committee Member
Loukas N Kalisperis, Committee Member
William P Bahnfleth, Committee Member - Keywords:
- automatic shade control
fabric shades
lighting control
daylighting
glare control
luminance ratios - Abstract:
- Translucent fabric shades provide opportunities for building occupants to control sunlight penetration for heat reduction, thermal comfort, and visual quality. Regulating shades affects building energy and can potentially reduce the size of mechanical cooling systems. Shades are not normally included in energy model studies during the design process, even though shades potential impact energy use. This is because the occupants normally leave shades closed a large fraction of the time, but models are generally performed with no shades. Automatic shade control is now available, so it is necessary to understand the impact of shades on visual quality and their energy saving potential in order to optimize their overall performance. There are very limited studies that have address shades and their integrated performance on energy consumption and visual quality. Most of these do not reflected modern shade types and their application. The goals of this study are: First, to determine the impact of shades on total, heating, cooling and lighting energy savings with different design and operation parameters. Second, to study and develop different automatic shade control strategies to promote and optimize energy savings and visual quality. A simulation-based approach using EnergyPlus in a parametric study provide better understanding energy savings under different shade conditions. The parametric runs addressed various building parameters such as geometry, orientation, site climate, glazing/shade properties, and shade control strategies with integrated lighting control. The impact of shades was determined for total building and space heating, cooling and lighting energy savings. The effect of shades on visual quality was studied using EnergyPlus, AGI32 and DAYSIM for several indices such as daylight glare index (DGI), work plane illuminance, luminance ratios and view. Different shade control strategies and integrated lighting control were considered with two translucent fabric shade colors. The results clearly show the benefit of automatic shade control strategies with integrated lighting control over a condition when shades are closed all day. The main contributor to the total energy savings is from lighting energy savings, followed by cooling energy savings. Shades provide greater benefit in a hot climate and in a moderate climate than in a cold climate. Different control strategies provide savings in the range of 7-35% for annual total space energy with higher savings with light colored shades. Control strategies of shades should be selected and optimized based on climate, orientation, window area, and window/shade properties. High performance glazings, when equipped with shades, show lower energy savings when compared to standard glazings. High transmittance/reflectance shades, such as white shades, perform better than dark shades in most of the cases due to higher lighting energy savings obtained with the automatic electric lighting control and the resulting cooling energy savings from rejection of some solar energy and a reduction in the heat from lights. A South orientation showed the least benefit of automatic control of shades when compare to other orientations due to the large fraction of time shades are required to provide visual comfort. Under automatic shade control, energy savings are higher the more often the shades can be raised. The different automatic control strategies present tradeoffs between energy savings and comfort. With regard to visual quality, daylight quality assessments on view, glare, luminance ratios, and UDI can be used to assess shade control strategies. Automatic shade control can increase the number of view hours while controlling sunlight penetration. With automatic shade control, more daylight hours can be provided within the beneficial range of 100-2000 lux compared to shades that are closed all day. For a person facing the window, discomfort glare is likely to increase the more often the shades are raised. Keeping the shades down ensures an acceptable glare condition, but limits energy savings. Luminance ratios are another metric that can be used to assess shade performance. With white shades, the luminance ratios between the task and proximate surfaces are improved. Dark shades help improve the luminance ratios between the task and distant surfaces. When the shades are left open, even with no direct sunlight in the space, task to window luminance ratios will often exceed 1:10.