Development of a Methodology to Evaluate the Energy and Comfort Performance to Fenestration

Publication Type

Conference Paper

Date Published

06/1989

Authors

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a new concept for analyzing the performance of fenestration systems. We show the derivation of five indicators that can be combined in a variety of ways so that both qualitative and quantitative judgements can be made regarding total fenestration performance. The five indices consist of three related to energy: fuel (heating), electric (cooling), and peak electric demand; and two to comfort: thermal and visual. Performance comparisons of different systems are made possible by introduction of a non-dimensional user-defined weighting function that specifies the relationship between the five indices. A figure of merit is then calculated by combining the index values and weighting factors to provide a direct comparison between fenestration systems.

The indices were derived by performing a multiple regression of several thousand hour-by- hour building heat transfer simulations of a prototypical office building module using the DOE-2 simulation program. From this regression analysis, we derived a series of simplified algebraic expressions that related fenestration performance to configuration variables. We then incorporated this methodology as the computational engine within a prototype fenestration design tool on a microcomputer using hypermedia concepts for the user interface. A hypermedia environment is one that integrates computer graphics, video, sound, animation, etc. with calculation sequences. This first prototype represents a significant developmental step toward our longterm goal of an overall building envelope design tool.

Journal

International Building Performance Simulation Association Building Simulation 89 Conference

Year of Publication

1989

Organization

Research Areas

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