Green facade for energy savings in buildings: The influence of leaf area index and facade orientation on the shadow effect

From the results, it can be stated that the most simple and quick procedure to measure LAI in order to characterize the foliar density of VGS is the indirect method based on the amount of light transmitted through the green screen. From the experimental tests interesting energy savings were obtained (up to 34% for Boston Ivy pant specie with a LAI of 3.5-4, during summer period under Mediterranean continental climate). Moreover, the dependence on facade orientation was confirmed with representative contribution over the whole energy savings from East and West orientation.