Windows, doors and surface parts

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Windows, doors and surface parts

Window

To add a window, drag it with the mouse from the palette to a surface of the room in the 3D view, Figure 2. A selected window can be moved by holding down the Ctrl-key (the window will change from red to green) and dragging the window to a new position, which can be on another wall. Right click and choose Duplicate to insert a copy of the window, slightly shifted from the original position. When a window is added to a surface with internal construction, the surface is assigned the default external construction. Double click to open the window object, Figure 5. To remove the window, right click and choose Delete.

Figure 4. A window in the 3D view marked and ready to be moved

To edit and set parameters for a window, double click to open the window object or click on the window with the right mouse button and choose “Open”. Both actions will open the window dialog where you for example can edit the geometry and size of the window as well as define shading, shading control etc.

Figure 5.

Glazing Select the glazing system to be used. Click on link to edit the specific pane and gap combination.

Shading Type Select the type of solar protection to be used.

Shading Product Select the specific shading product. Click on link to change a specific aspect of the product, such as the fabric used. Note that the definition of “Product” here not only entails the material used, but also other things such as measurements of the mounting, durability against wind load etc.

Button: g for system Press this to compute the properties for the combination of shading and glazing at reference conditions according to the standards EN ISO 52022-3, EN 410 and ISO 15099. Only shading and glazing data is used for this calculation.

The boundary conditions are:

Solar radiation is direct and normal to the glazing, except for windows with venetian blinds or other types of horizontal lamella structures in EN ISO 52022-3, where the solar height is 45 degrees and 15 % of the incident solar radiation is diffuse.

In the glazing report, the total solar energy transmittance is the sum of the direct solar transmittance and the secondary internal heat transfer factor, while the latter is the sum of the convection factor, the thermal radiation factor and the ventilation factor.

Also, the sum of the direct solar transmittance, the solar reflectance outside and the absorptance in all the layers will equal one.

Control Select control scheme for shading operation. The following options are available:

*Switchable panes in dark state **Can be selected in Advanced settings in full ESBO

Geometry Here you can edit the geometry:

X Position in x-direction [m].

Y Position in y-direction [m].

Width The window’s extension along the x-direction (frame outside measurement) [m].

Height The window’s extension along the y-direction (frame outside measurement) [m].

Recess depth The distance between the window outer pane and the façade surface [m].

Frame fraction The frame fraction is the unglazed area of the window divided by the whole window area, defined by the outer frame measures [%].

Frame U-value The frame U-value is the heat transfer coefficient for the unglazed part of the window, including interior and exterior film coefficients. (W/m2°C).

Frame Inner surface The frame inner surface setting is reached by clicking the More… link. It describes the optical properties of the inner surface of the frame.

Frame Outer surface The frame outer surface setting is reached by clicking the More… link. It describes the optical properties of the outer surface of the frame.

Shading product dialogs

Most of the dialogs for entering product details for different shading types are similar. Here we will describe them together by the example of an Exterior screen. Further down we describe the dialogs for Micro lamellas and Switchable panes which are not similar to Exterior screen.

Below is an example what the dialog looks like when an Exterior screen has been selected in the Type dropdown list. The dialog is opened by clicking the link Product as indicated in Figure 7.

Figure 7. A shading product dialog (here showing an Exterior screen)

To select a specific fabric for the screen from the database, select Load from database… in the drop down list as indicated in Figure 7. Note that you can sort the elements of the database by any column by clicking on the header. By sorting by the least important property first, e.g. Transmittance, and then by the most important, e.g. Manufacturer, you can get the table in an appropriate order for doing also complex filtering. By then clicking “Material” you open the the Shade material dialog, in which you can see calculated mean values and data from the spectral data file (if such exist).    

In the product dialog, you also select measurements that are specific to the device that you want to describe, for the example of the Exterior screen, the gap between the outer pane and the fabric is given (near the symbol of the sun) and the ventilation gaps around the fabric are given (in the box Ventilation) in order to compute the air thermal air circulation around the fabric.

Inputs for Temperature limit and Wind limit may also (optionally) be given. If a Temperature limit has been given, the shading will not be drawn when the outdoor air temperature (away from the window) is below this limit. To avoid problems with freezing, you can enter e.g. “-0.5” here. Similarly, Wind limit allows you to prevent lowering the shade when the wind is too high.

In a real live installation of a wind meter, the signal will fluctuate wildly with each individual gust. However, in the simulation weather data file, the wind is averaged over a full hour, so all individual gusts will disappear. Furthermore, models are applied to estimate the actual wind near the window in question and this will further lower the reading in comparison to that given by the weather data file. Altogether, this means that the same numerical value of Wind limit cannot be used for the simulation as is entered in the real shading controller, but a considerably lower value must be used here to get a comparable share of wind limited time over a longer period.

Another shading type is Micro lamella, which is microscopic lamellas placed on the inside of the outer pane of the window. The shading from these is direction dependent, which is described in material files uploaded by the manufacturer of the micro lamella. This direction dependence is also taken into account in the Radiance daylight calculation. The shading is fixed to the glass and cannot be controlled.

Figure 8.

Exterior micro lamellas have a similar type of structure, but are positioned outside of the window and can be controlled (rolled up and down).

Yet another shading type is Switchable panes, which is a window pane that has different properties based on some control signal. The switchable pane is described in the glazing dialog, Figure 9.

Figure 9.

Door

The purpose of the door object is to describe the main properties of a closed external door. To add a door, drag it with the mouse from the palette to a surface of the room in the 3D view. When a door is added to a surface that is presently internal, the surface is converted to being external and is assigned the default external construction and the color of the wall will change to brown.

Figure 10.

Construction To choose door construction, click on the right arrow with the left mouse button and choose “Load from database”. Click the hyperlink to open the construction dialog, Figure 15.

Inner surface The inner surface describes the optical properties of the inner surface of the door.

Outer surface The outer surface describes the optical properties of the outer surface of the door.

X Position in x-direction [m].

Y Position in y-direction [m].

Width The door’s extension along the x-direction [m].

Height The door’s extension along the y-direction [m].

Surface part

A surface part is a part of a surface with different construction and/or boundary conditions. It is primarily used to adjust the total areas of a model that uses zone multipliers, to get the right balance between external and internal area. Let’s say, for example, that you are working on a building with multiple identical floors. You can then describe only one floor and use zone multipliers to get the total floor area right. However, in order to account for the different boundary conditions and constructions in the roof and ground slab, you can add small surface parts with the slab and roof constructions.

Drag a surface part from the palette to a surface of the room in the 3D view. See Figure 11. Double click to open the surface part object and choose construction by loading it from the database, see Figure 12.

Figure 11. A room with a surface part added on a wall

Construction To choose surface construction, click on the right arrow with the left mouse button and choose “Load from database”. Click the hyperlink to open the construction dialog, Figure 15.

Inner surface The inner surface describes the optical properties of the inner surface of the surface part.

Outer surface The outer surface describes the optical properties of the outer surface of the surface part.

X Position in x-direction [m].

Y Position in y-direction [m].

Width The surface part’s extension along the x-direction [m].

Height The surface part’s extension along the y-direction [m].

Figure 12.

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