The effect of dynamic solar shading on energy, daylighting and thermal comfort in a nearly zero-energy loft room in Rome and Copenhagen

Dynamic solar shading is commonly suggested as a means of reducing the problem of overheating in well-insulated residential buildings, while at the same time letting daylight and solar irradiation in when needed. To critically investigate what dynamic shading can and cannot do compared to permanent alternatives in buildings with very low space-heating demand, this study mapped and compared energy, daylighting and thermal comfort for various combinations of window size and glazing properties, with and without dynamic shading.

The study considered a loft room with sloped roof windows and moderate venting options in nearly zero-energy homes in Rome and Copenhagen. The more flexible solution space with dynamic shading made it possible to either reduce the time with operative temperatures exceeding the comfort limit by 40–50 h or increase daylighting by 750–1000 h more than could be achieved without shading.

However, dynamic shading could not improve the optimum space-heating demand of the loft room in any predictable way, and without using dynamic shading, illuminances of 300 lx in 75% of the space could be achieved in 50–63% of the daylight hours with no more than 40–100 h exceeding the comfort ranges as defined by the Adaptive Thermal Comfort (ATC) model.