Review on measuring tools for energy efficient solar shading strategies in tropical climate

Abstract

Solar shading is an important architectural element not only for the purpose of reducing direct solar heat gain, but also for controlling the indoor environment quality of day-lighting and associated glare. The balance between the prevention of heat gains and natural day-light penetration is crucial for energy saving in building cooling and lighting. This paper is part of an initial research work towards designing energy efficient solar shading devices in hot humid tropics. It is mainly a critical review of measuring tools used in solar shading design. The availability and performances of computer simulation tools are presented are presented as they can provide more accurate results to assist in designing and towards achieving optimum cooling and lighting energy. The review concludes that the understanding of the characteristics of different types of shading devices and the methods of shading is crucial for architects to design energy efficient solar shading. However, the present methods of shading design require detailed data input or expert knowledge that is impractical during early design stage. Hence, further research is needed to develop simplified design tool for solar shading towards energy efficiency in tropical climate.