Light versus Energy Performance of Office Rooms with Curtain Walls: A Parametric Study

A parametric study aimed at identifying the best performing solution in terms of lighting, heating and cooling demand minimization for an office room is presented. Different orientations, room and façade lay-outs, glazing and lighting control systems have been combined and 192 configurations have been analysed through a two-step process: daylight factor and dynamic daylighting metrics and the corresponding energy demand for lighting were calculated in step 1 using Daysim; the energy demand for heating and cooling was determined in step 2 using a quasi-steady state approach, to verify whether the best configurations obtained in step 1 also resulted in the lowest global energy demand.