Impact on thermal comfort of conventional and advanced glazed façades in office buildings

Transparent façades are often used to increase the aesthetic value of the building and to provide visual contact with the outdoor. However, together with several positive features, it should be mentioned that glass façades may reduce the quality of the indoor thermal environment, causing thermal discomfort especially due to overheating in the summer season. The aim of this paper is to compare the implications on thermal comfort of different glazed façades, whose surface temperatures have been monitored during several experimental campaigns. The analyzed glazing systems were double skin façades and non conventional single skin façades integrating different materials (i.e. phase change material, areogel). Starting from the measured internal surface temperatures, a fictitious office room was simulated in order to assess the thermal comfort performance through the calculation of the PMV index. Results show that the choice of the glazing system can strongly affect the thermal comfort of an office.