Impact of External Shading on Light Comfort and Energy Efficiency in Apartment Buildings

Abstract

The paper is focused on an example of volume solution of a superstructure designed within allowable legislative limits and its impact on light comfort in shaded flats. It deals with issues such as : optimizing allowable amount of external shade in relation to sustainable hygienic quality of residential environment, an impact of superstructure ́s shade on insolation time in affected flats and consequently on passive solar gain intensity of apartment buildings, as well as evaluation of energy efficiency of infill walls in compensating of their heat loss in heating period, depending on the amount of external shading, their orientation, and thermo-insulation quality in all model scenarios - current, legislatively allowable, and optimized. It solves compatibility of optimized shading in terms of hygienic quality in relation to the increased efficiency of solar gains utilization to cover heat loss by heat-exchange shell in contemporary and prospective low-energy buildings.