Windows and Facades: Proposal of a Device for Increasing Performance for Natural Ventilation and Daylighting

Egon Vettorazzi

Helenice M. Sacht

Marcelo Langner

Darwin J. Camacho

ABSTRACT: Buildings energy consumption in Brazil corresponds to about 47% of total consumption. In this respect, facades and windows are elements which influence directly that consumption. Thus, the aim of this work is the study of a device for windows and facades, which operates to increase building energy efficiency, without adding monthly maintenance costs. The proposed Sun-Air-Light device has three main functions: The first function is the protection against unwanted solar radiation by shadowing. The second function improves the conditions of natural ventilation and the third one improves the distribution of daylighting in the interior, by means of a light shelve solution. An analyze was performed by means of computer simulations for comparing the use of the device with a conventional window to obtain the performance data in terms of daylighting and natural ventilation; using the computer programs Autodesk Revit 2016 and Flow Design; Daylight Visualizer 2.8.4 and Design Builder 4.2. It was observed that besides viable for different Brazilian latitudes, the use of the device can increase the thermal comfort conditions, reducing solar gain by exterior windows around 36.06% on average, and thus reducing the energy consumption. The device further improves daylighting conditions of the environment and contributes to sustainability of buildings with their use.

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