A surface property of building facades, which has implications for thermal performance of buildings as well as outdoor thermal comfort, is visual reflectance. In this paper, the effects of facades' visual reflectance on buildings' thermal performance and outdoor thermal comfort were investigated. A simulation tool was calibrated via empirical data and deployed to explore the impact of the visual reflectance of typical building facades in Vienna on indoor temperature and heating and cooling loads. The results show that the magnitude of visual reflectance has little impact on indoor temperature and energy demand of insulated buildings, while its effect on cooling load of non-insulated buildings is considerable. Finally, the effect of facades' visual reflectance on outdoor thermal comfort was investigated.
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