Energy performance of evacuated glazings in residential buildings
This paper presents the results of a study investigating the energy performance of evacuated glazings or glazings which maintain a vacuum between two panes of glass. Their performance is determined by comparing results to prototype highly insulated superwindows as well as a more conventional. insulating glass unit with a low-E coating and argon gas fill. We used the DOE2.1E energy analysis simulation program to analyze the annual and hourly heating energy use due to the windows of a prototypical single-story house located in Madison, Wisconsin. Cooling energy performance was also investigated. Our results show that for highly insulating windows, the solar heat gain coefficient is as important as the window`s U-factor in determining heating performance for window orientations facing west-south-east. For other orientations in which there is not much direct solar radiation, the window`s U-factor primarily governs performance. The vacuum glazings had lower heating requirements than the superwindows for most window orientations. The conventional low-E window outperformed the superwindows for southwest-south-southeast orientations These performance differences are directly related to the solar heat gain coefficients of the various windows analyzed. The cooling performance of the windows was inversely related to the heating performance. The lower solar heat gain coefficients of the superwindows resulted in the best cooling performance. However, we were able to mitigate the cooling differences of the windows by using an interior shading device that reduced the amount of solar gain at appropriate times.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 228235
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-37130; CONF-960606-1; BS-343; ON: DE96005895
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1996 annual meeting of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Inc., San Antonio, TX (United States), 22-26 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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