It is estimated that windows in office buildings are responsible for one third of energy used for their heating and cooling. Designing window shading that balances often contradictory goals of preventing excessive heat gains in hot periods, without compromising beneficial heat gains in cold periods or visual comfort in indoor spaces of modern buildings with highly glazed facades, is an interesting multi-objective optimisation problem that represents an active research topic in the field of building energy and daylighting. Window overhangs are the simplest and most traditional shading devices that are easy to install, highly cost-effective, require low or no maintenance and offer unobstructed views outside. This book provides a review of overhang design methods for optimal thermal and daylighting performance. It starts with a historical overview of methods based on solar positions and shading masks. Next it discusses current research methodology, including shading calculation methods, ways of quantifying thermal and daylighting overhang effectiveness and the use of multi-objective optimisation approaches, together with the case studies that employ them. It further covers methods for designing innovative overhang types such as NURBS outlined overhangs and PV integrated dynamic overhangs. The appendix classifies published overhang case studies according to major climate type and latitude of their locations. As such, the book presents a valuable resource for understanding subtle nuances of interaction between solar radiation, shading devices and indoor comfort. The intended target audience are building energy researchers interested in optimisation of window shading devices.

Autorentext

Dr. Sanja Stevanovic has a Master of Architectural Engineering from the University of NiS, Serbia. Having worked as a registered architect in industry for several years, she enrolled into a PhD program in Architecture at the University of NiS in 2007. She defended her PhD thesis on the effects of passive solar design of office buildings on their energy use in 2014. Sanja currently works as an associate research professor at the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, where she is primarily concerned with optimization of architectural features of energy efficient buildings. In this respect she has also written a couple of research papers about optimizing NURBS outlined overhangs from the building energy perspective. Sanja was also a visiting researcher in Slovenia and Macedonia and serves as a review editor for Frontiers in Built Environment. In spare time she loves hiking in Serbian mountains with friends and her moyen poodle.