Analysis of Energy Efficiency Benefits of Smart Glazed Overhangs for Office Buildings in France

The energy efficiency benefits of both static and dynamic overhangs made-up of smart glazing materials are assessed when deployed to windows of prototypical office buildings in France. The tint level and the tilt angle settings of overhangs made-up of smart glazing can be adjusted on an hourly, daily, and monthly basis with the main objective of minimizing the overall building’s annual energy consumption. In this study, annual energy end-uses for the prototypical office building equipped with smart glazed overhangs are compared to those obtained for the baseline case with no shading and the case with static opaque overhangs. The analysis results show that the use of opaque and smart glazed overhangs for office buildings in Paris could achieve annual whole-building energy savings of 1.36% and 4.12%, respectively, compared to no-shading case. Moreover, the energy efficiency benefits of the dynamic overhangs are found to depend on a wide range of design features and climatic conditions. It is found that energy savings incurred by the deployment of overhangs made-up of smart glazed materials increase with the window size. The evaluated smart glazed overhangs provide a low-cost alternative to the installation of high-performance windows, especially for existing commercial buildings.