Passive energy-saving design strategy and realization on high window-wall ratio buildings in subtropical regions

Xing Xie, Bin Xu, Yue Fei, Xing-ni Chen, Gang Pei and Jie Ji

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 229, issue C

Abstract: Indoor overheating in high window-wall ratio (WWR) buildings has drawn widespread attention, but there is limited research on it during winter. Similarly, the application of radiative cooling (RC) technology on high-WWR facades and the effectiveness of combining RC with phase change materials (PCMs) need exploration. In Guangzhou, typical rooms in commercial buildings were studied, revealing that high-WWR buildings experience greater indoor overheating in winter compared to summer. For a 100 % WWR, the total equivalent energy consumption (EEC) is 71.389 kWh·m−2 in winters, 7.8 % higher than summer. Using RC glass with high solar (diffuse) reflectivity (0.65) on south-facing windows reduced EEC by over 70 %. RC glass also provided significant cooling capacity during unoccupied periods, which is sufficient to meet daytime cooling needs. In the case of a 100 % WWR, the proportion of available cooling capacity (37.5 %) during unoccupied period exceeded daytime cooling EEC (24.9 %). Therefore, PCMs were adopted to store this cooling capacity and transfer it for release during the occupied period, which bring an additional improvement in energy-saving performance by 4.7 %. The combination of PCMs and RC technology further achieves building energy efficiency. This study offers insights for addressing winter indoor overheating in high-WWR buildings.

Keywords: Commercial building; Window-wall ratio; Radiative cooling; Phase change material; Near-zero energy building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:229:y:2024:i:c:s0960148124007778

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120709

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