EFFECTS OF LOUVERS SHADING DEVICES ON VISUAL COMFORT AND ENERGY DEMAND OF AN OFFICE BUILDING. A CASE OF STUDY

摘要

This paper evaluates the building energy demand and visual comfort of a real casewith a glazed façade office building placed in Málaga (Mediterranean city in the south ofSpain). South oriented facades receive such a high solar gain that cooling demand cannotbe handled by the current HVAC system. As an environmental friendly solution, a shadingcontrol strategy based on vertical and horizontal louvers is proposed.The study consists of a comparison between the actual and the refurbished buildingwith shading devices. Daylighting simulation is done with Daysim (Daysim, 2016). Agroup of offices with south, east and north oriented facades is chosen for the study. Horizontallouvers in the south façade and vertical louvers in the east facade are modelledand simulated. The simulation changes the angle of the louver: 0º (perpendicular to theglazing), -30º, 30º, -60º, 60º. Visual comfort parameters analyzed are: illuminance, daylightautonomy (DA) and useful daylight index (UDI). With respect to the thermal comfort,not only louvers orientation try to provide solar protection for glazed areas in coolingperiod but also maximize solar gains in heating period. However, an excessive daylightcould affect discomfort glare. Shading control strategy must provide the equilibriumbetween both aspects. Thermal demand is calculated with Trnsys (TRNSYS, 2016).