A Review of Automated Control Strategies of Blinds Considering Glare Prevention and Energy Saving

In recent years, a large number of studies have shown that shading devices have great potential in saving energy, improving indoor thermal comfort as well as preventing glare. As a passive strategy, the shading devices have great value to improve building performance sustainably. Appropriately, the shading control strategies can effectively utilize daylight in interior space that benefit an occupant’s health, well-being, and productivity by preventing glare and overheating while indoor lighting, cooling and heating loads are reduced. The venetian blinds are the most widely used in buildings at present due to its dynamically adjustable performance. Currently, more and more automatic venetian blinds control strategies have been developed to overcome the shortcomings of manual operation. It is also necessary to find the optimal shading control strategy to prevent indoor glare and to enhance the efficiency of energy saving. However, there is a lack of systematically review related to these research fields. This paper presents a review of the control strategies of the venetian blinds in various previous studies and analyzes the effects of different control strategies on indoor daylighting, glare prevention, thermal comfort and energy consumption. The review identifies current challenges and provides significant theoretical guidance for future research. At the same time, it also provides building design professionals with suggestive strategies and concepts of pre-shading design.