Effects of Single, Double, Triple and Quadruple Window Glazing of Various Glass Materials on Heat Gain in Green Energy Buildings

The objective of this study is to reduce energy consumption for cooling in buildings by passive solar design. This work presents the impact of single, double, triple and quadruple window glazing of four glass materials such as clear, bronze, green and bronze- reflective on heat gain in buildings. The solar thermal properties of the four glass materials were measured experimentally using Perkin Elmer lambda spectrophotometer. The climatic data of four climatic zones of India such as Hot and dry (Ahmedabad), temperate (Bangalore), warm and humid (Bombay) and composite (New Delhi) were considered for the study. The cement plastered burnt brick building walls with reinforced cement concrete roof and dense concrete floor were designed using Design builder and thermal simulations were carried out in Energy plus for heat gain in buildings. An unventilated air gap of 10 mm was maintained between the pane layers. Sixty four building models were simulated in four different window orientations such as East, West, North and south. The buildings located in composite climatic conditions with single, double, triple and quadruple bronze-reflective glass placed in the South orientation gain 41.54, 40.18, 39.55 and 39.19 kWh of heat, respectively. From the results it is observed that the heat gain in buildings decreases with the increase in the pane glazing layers. The bronze-reflective window glass materials with single, double, triple and quadruple glazing are found to be energy efficient among all window glass materials studied. The results of the study help in designing energy efficient building fenestration.