Potential Energy Savings with Exterior Shades in Large Offce Buildings and the Impace of Discomfort Glare

This paper discusses the overall energy use intensity of various external shading systems for a prototypical large office building split into the different types of energy use and for different orientations and window sizes. Lighting energy was calculated for a constant lighting power as well as for dimmed lighting fixtures (daylighting control). In section 3, slat angles and solar cut-off angles were varied for fixed exterior slat shading systems. While the most light-blocking shades performed best for the case without daylighting controls, the optimum cut-off angle with daylighting controls was found to be 30 deg for the used building prototype used in Chicago and Houston. For large window-to-wall (WWR) ratios, window related annual energy use could be reduced by at least 70 % without daylighting control and by a minimum of 86 % with daylighting control in average over all orientations. The occurrence of discomfort glare was is considered in section 4 of the paper, which looks at the performance of commercially available exterior shading systems when an interior shade is used during those hours during which occupants would experience discomfort glare.

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