Study the thermal property effect on window energy savings

Abstract

Global warming is a vicious cycle. The rise in global temperature increases the cooling demand for thermal comfort, which in turn leads to more greenhouse gas emissions. Windows are known to be the most energy inefficient component of a building fenestration system. To reduce energy demand for heating and cooling systems, passive systems such as thermochromic windows is used to modulate light without any external energy input. In this thesis, we compare the energy consumption between thermochromic window and the standard single-glazed window in three cities with different climate zones. We simulated the annual energy consumption of a typical 4-room flat model with window-to-wall ratio of 30% in three cities (Singapore, Clermont Ferrand and Moscow) using EnergyPlus™ software. Differences in annual energy consumption, monthly heating and cooling consumption between single-glazed window and thermochromic window were subsequently analysed. Thermochromic window outperforms single-glazed window by reducing energy consumption in all three cities. The highest energy-saving efficiency is achieved in Singapore (13.7%), followed by Clermont Ferrand (6.7%) and Moscow (5.4%). Thermochromic window is superior to single-glazed window in energy efficiency. It is recommended that the governments should push for adoption of the thermochromic window system to reduce carbon footprint attributed to space cooling. Future research can be done by including coatings on thermochromic window for an accurate modelling of thermochromic windows.