Solar shading control strategy for office buildings in cold climate

The objective of the present study was to develop a solar shading control strategy for venetian blinds applied on office buildings in cold climates in order to achieve acceptable energy use and indoor environmental performance. A control strategy based on a combination of internal and external shading develop within the Norwegian R&D project “Fasader i glass som holder hva vi lover” (“Glazed facades keeping what we promise”, translation by author) was extended with factors related to glare, daylight sufficiency and view to the outside. The study used full-scale experiments in a test room in Aalborg, Denmark, to verify the performance of the control strategy, and the study was further expanded with annual simulations of the office room at different locations. Results of the annual performance illustrated that the proposed control strategy would lead to satisfying compromises between the energy and indoor environmental performance. Generally, the investigation exemplifies the importance of doing integrated evaluations of energy use and thermal and visual comfort when making decisions regarding solar shading control strategies.