Design and Energy Performance of a Buoyancy Driven Exterior Shading Device for Building Application in Taiwan

Traditional dynamic shading systems are usually driven by electricity for continuously controlling the angle of blind slats to minimize the indoor solar heat gain over times. This paper proposed a novel design of buoyancy driven dynamic shading system, using only minimum amount of electricity. The energy performance and the improved thermal comfort induced by the system were simulated by EnergyPlus for a typical office space under the context of Taiwanese climate. The design processes are composed of three parts: an alterable angle of blind slats that raises the energy performance to be suitable for every orientation, the buoyancy driven transmission mechanism, and a humanized controller that ensures its convenience. The environmental friendly design aspects and control mechanisms to fulfill demands for manufacturing, assembling, maintenance and recycling, etc., were also presented as readily for building application. Besides, the effectiveness of cooling energy saving and thermal comfort enhancing were compared against the cases without exterior blinds and with traditional fixed blinds installed. The results show that the cooling energy is drastically reduced over times and the blind system is effectively enhancing the indoor thermal comfort. OPEN ACCESS Energies 2015, 8 2359