Novel glazing technologies to mitigate energy consumption in low-carbon buildings: a comparative experimental investigation

Buildings play a key role in total world energy consumption as a consequence of poor thermal insulation characteristics of facade materials. Among the elements of a typical building envelope, windows are responsible for the greatest energy loss because of their notably high overall heat transfer coefficients. About 60% of heat loss through the building fabric can be attributed to the glazed areas. In this respect, novel cost-effective glazing technologies are needed to mitigate energy consumption, and thus to achieve the latest targets toward low/zero carbon buildings. Therefore in this study, three unique glazing products called vacuum tube window, heat insulation solar glass and solar pond window which have recently been developed at the University of Nottingham are introduced, and thermal performance analysis of each glazing technology is done through a comparative experimental investigation for the first time in literature. Standardized co-heating test methodology is performed, and overall heat transfer coefficient (U-value) is determined for each glazing product following the tests carried out in a calibrated environmental chamber. The research essentially aims at developing cost-effective solutions to mitigate energy consumption because of windows. The results indicate that each glazing technology provides very promising U-values which are incomparable with conventional commercial glazing products. Among the samples tested, the lowest U-value is obtained from the vacuum tube window by 0.40 W/m2K, which corresponds to five times better thermal insulation ability compared to standard air filled double glazed windows. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.