Evaluation of the thermal performance indices of a ventilated double window through experimental and analytical procedures: Uw-values

Simulations to evaluate energy demand for heating and cooling and thermal comfort are becoming more and more common place in the building design process, at least in the most complex cases. In all detailed or simplified calculations, to analyse heat transfer to and from a building, several input parameters are needed. The inputs for the simulation of a whole building are at least the building geometry, the building envelope thermal indices (like thermal transmittance or the solar heat gain coefficient) and typical local climatic data. In a ventilated double window, the air flow through the channel between the two windows makes its thermal performance highly dynamic and dependent on the air flow characteristics. For a whole building simulation, single coefficients or easily calculated coefficients are needed for each facade system, including ventilated systems. In this paper, equivalent thermal transmittance coefficients for a ventilated double window are assessed and presented. For that, experimental measurements in the absence of solar radiation (night period) were used to identify tendencies and validate calculations. Furthermore, simulations were done in order to estimate the Uw-values of the ventilated double window under different windows configuration and different air flow rates. These values can then be used in whole building simulation programmes.