Solar Aperture of a Building Enclosure: The Case Study of a Well-Insulated Family House in Semi-Continental Climate

Abstract

As thermal insulation of building enclosure has substantially improved over the last decades, solar heat gains comprise more important part in thermal balance of a building in semi-continental climate, often leading to overheating. The quality of the whole building enclosure should be assessed by its ability to transmit solar heat gains. Such thermal characteristic need to aggregate properties like glazing area in each facade, total solar energy transmittance of glazing, the efficiency of fixed shading devices and the operation of movable shading devices. In this paper, the surrogate horizontal effective collector area is used for the characterization of solar heat gains through a building enclosure. The parameter is called the solar aperture of a building enclosure. First, the formula for solar aperture is derived. Then, building energy simulation of a model family house is performed. The correlation of the solar aperture with overheating and space heating demand is analysed. Based on the analysis, the recommended trade-off values of the specific solar aperture are proposed for family houses in semi-continental climate. The trade-off values of the solar aperture will lead to reasonable promotion of solar heat gains during cold season and significant reduction of solar heat gains during warm season.