Double skin glazed fac¸ ades in sunny Mediterranean climates

SILVANA FLORES LARSEN; LUIS RENGINFO; CELINA FILIPPÍN

ENERGY AND BUILDINGS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 102 p. 18 - 31

0378-7788

Double skin glazed facades (DGF) are an actual worldwide trend in new and refurbished buildings, evenin warm climates with high solar radiation levels as in the Middle East and in Mediterranean climates. Insuch climates, overheating of indoor spaces and therefore excessive energy consumption are the mainproblems to be faced. These issues are commonly addressed mostly by thermal simulation or experimen-tal evaluations on small prototypes. However, measurements on real-scale buildings with DGFs are veryunusual. This information is crucial to understand and validate the predictions of the thermal behavior ofthe DGF technology. In this paper, thermal measurements were carried out in an unoccupied office build-ing with a West DGF placed in the Northwest region of Argentina during 3 months in spring/summer. Theair temperature exceeded in 10◦C the outdoor air and that indoor temperatures have not exceeded theoutdoor levels in the hottest hours. Two correct design decisions were the use of low-e double hermeticglazing and the addition of a screenpainting to the external DGF panel. The experimental data showedthat well-designed DGFs can reduce the summer energy consumption of buildings, even using West DGFs,in sunny climates.