External shading and its effect on the energy efficiency of Tehran's office buildings
Sima Heidarzadeh, Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad, Farah Habib
Abstract
Abstract Modern office building designers tend to propose highly glazed façades that provide occupants with a view and daylight; however, the use of such façades has consequences, like glare and high energy consumption, especially in warm climates. Shadings affect energy usage for cooling, heating, and artificial lighting, defined as the objectives and output in the optimizer algorithm. The input variables are shading type, WWR, the depth of the shading, the distance between the shading and the window, the distance between fins, the number of fins in shading, and the distance from the top of the window. This research aims to comprehensively study external shadings and window‐to‐wall ratios to reduce the high energy consumption in modern office buildings in Tehran and cities in locations with a similar climate. The results can benefit all scientists researching building science, architects, instructors, and those wanting to buy a low‐energy consumption office. Energy consumption was calculated in Ladybug–Honeybee; the best objectives were obtained for each shading with the optimization process by the Octopus plugin in Grasshopper. Results were analyzed and rated compared with a window without shading. The best scenario was obtained for Egg‐crate with a 14.86% reduction in cooling energy and a 20.04% increase in useful daylight illuminance.