This Master’s thesis presents the analysis of different parameters connected to design of efficient transparent surfaces of a building. The analysis was performed on an archetypal communal office located in Ljubljana. The goal of the analysis was to understand the effect that individual parameters have on energy consumption of the building (heating, cooling and lighting), daylight illuminance and quality of the indoor thermal environment, and to determine the optimal values of the individual parameters for the given boundary conditions. The analysis of the transparent surface design was based on the computer simulations with programs EnegyPlus and Parametric Analysis Tool, where we first evaluated the effects and properties of transparent surfaces (LT, g and Ug). Next, we prepared 14 different glazing configurations, which were based on different commercially available windows, and analysed them with or without blinds. We also investigated how switching the lights on in lines, parallel to the transparent area, affects the lighting energy consumption. We simulated all of the configurations for 4 different orientations of the transparent surface (south, north, east, west), 11 different transparent surface sizes, and different shapes of the room. The results are divided into four sections. The first section presents the energy efficiency of different configurations through energy consumption for heating, cooling, lighting, and total energy consumption. The second section focuses on three daylight metrics (DA, cDA and UDI) to evaluate the quality of the daylight illuminance in the given space. The third section presents the results connected to the indoor thermal environment, where we track air temperature and operative temperature. And the fourth section evaluates the influence and efficiency of the blinds, based on the window heat addition. We took the results of the energy consumption analysis, visual conditions and quality of the indoor thermal environment, and determine the optimal configurations for different orientation, room shape and the area of interest. We found that the thermal insulating triple glazed windows are not always the optimal choice. From the perspective of overheating prevention, solar control double glazed windows proved to be a better choice for large transparent surfaces. Selective light switching in lines paralel to transparent surfaces reduced lighting energy consumption for more than 60 %, and carefully designed blinds can improve the quality of the indoor visual environment by reducing the high level illuminance of the area next to transparent surfaces.
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