Analyzing the effect of the longwave emissivity and solar reflectance of building envelopes on energy-saving in buildings in various climates
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials of Education Ministry, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092 (China)
A dynamic computer simulation is carried out in the climates of 35 cities distributed around the world. The variation of the annual air-conditioning energy loads due to changes in the longwave emissivity and the solar reflectance of the building envelopes is studied to find the most appropriate exterior building finishes in various climates (including a tropical climate, a subtropical climate, a mountain plateau climate, a frigid-temperate climate and a temperate climate). Both the longwave emissivity and the solar reflectance are set from 0.1 to 0.9 with an interval of 0.1 in the simulation. The annual air-conditioning energy loads trends of each city are listed in a chart. The results show that both the longwave emissivity and the solar reflectance of building envelopes play significant roles in energy-saving for buildings. In tropical climates, the optical parameters of the building exterior surface affect the building energy-saving most significantly. In the mountain plateau climates and the subarctic climates, the impacts on energy-saving in buildings due to changes in the longwave emissivity and the solar reflectance are still considerable, but in the temperate continental climates and the temperate maritime climates, only limited effects are seen. (author)
- OSTI ID:
- 21401368
- Journal Information:
- Solar Energy, Journal Name: Solar Energy Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 85; ISSN 0038-092X; ISSN SRENA4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
AIR CONDITIONING
ANNUAL VARIATIONS
BUILDINGS
CLIMATES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COOLING LOAD
DIAGRAMS
Dynamic simulation
EMISSIVITY
ENERGY CONSERVATION
LONG WAVE RADIATION
Longwave emissivity
ROOFS
SPECTRAL REFLECTANCE
SURFACES
Solar reflectance
URBAN AREAS
WALLS