Analysis of indoor environment and performance of net-zero energy building with vacuum glazed windows

Abstract

The total energy and indoor thermal environment of an office building, which aims at the net-zero energy building, were measured and analysed. The annual total primary energy consumption of ‘Measurement’ was smaller than the value of ‘Calculation’ at design phase and achieved net-zero. The result of analysis of the thermal environment shows that the comfortable thermal environment was maintained. Also, the insulation performance and heat balance of the vacuum glazed windows in winter was evaluated. The overall heat transfer coefficients calculated by using the monitoring data were almost equal to the rated overall heat transfer coefficient and the high insulation performance of vacuum glazed windows was maintained even in the second year’s operation. In addition, the amount of heat gain due to solar radiation on the window surface was much larger than the amount of heat loss due to transmission. The vacuum glazed windows with high thermal insulation performance on the south side can reduce the heating load and contribute to the achievement of net-zero in the buildings.