Vacuum-structured electrochromic glazing windows with ultra-low U-Values for building energy savings in all climatic zones

Wensen Mi, Jihong Pu, Chao Shen, Guozheng Chen and Kalogirou A. Soteris

Energy, 2025, vol. 336, issue C

Abstract: Electrochromic windows, as a cutting-edge technology, are highly promising for green buildings. However, traditional electrochromic glazing windows have rarely been used in cold and severe cold regions due to their high U-Value. In addition, commercial electrochromic windows regulate the solar transmittance through an absorbing-based mechanism, which may negatively cause secondary solar heat gain and overheating in near-window zones. To address these issues, a vacuum structure with low-emissivity coating was proposed for the WO3-based electrochromic glazing. In this study, a real-scale vacuum-electrochromic (VEC) window is fabricated and evaluated both experimentally and numerically. Experimental results demonstrate that the application of the VEC window in a sunny day can increase the useful daylight illuminance (UDI) by 39 % in 1.5 V state during the working time, whilst reducing the indoor air peak temperature by 3.1 °C and inner glazing surface peak temperatures by 13.6 °C, in full-tinted state. Energy-saving simulation of the VEC window indicate that it is highly promising across all climatic conditions, achieving a building energy saving by 12 %–16 % in five distinct climatic zones of China. These findings indicate that the proposed VEC window is a viable solution for low-energy buildings.

Keywords: Electrochromic (EC) glazing; Vacuum glazing; Indoor light environment; Daylight qualities; Energy-saving in buildings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225041386
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:336:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225041386

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.138496

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().