Impact of glazed balconies on the energy efficiency of residential buildings: the case of Coastal Region; Saida

Abstract

This research project aims to study the effect of glazed balconies on energy consumed on cooling, balcony typologies, and adjacent spaces. The research focuses on the case of seafronts and specifically Saida’s coastal zone: “Corniche El Baher” area. Glazed balconies are a spontaneous chaotic trend that allows users to benefit from and occupy balcony spaces in all seasons. This trend has many impacts on the indoor thermal comfort and energy consumed in the glazed spaces. Drawing upon previous energy consumption research, particularly in the summer months in residential buildings in Lebanon and focusing on the coastal zones and buildings overlooking the sea on the west, was helpful in identifying the relation between energy consumption and glazing. The adopted methodology identified the balcony typologies found in “Corniche El Baher” area overlooking the west through site observation and note takings. Building modeling and energy simulations were implemented on several case studies in order to estimate the energy consumed on cooling in the glazed balconies and adjacent spaces of different balcony typologies. Three case studies were modeled representing the three balcony typologies; balcony surrounded by 1 wall, 2 walls, and 3 walls. Three scenarios for each model were simulated; balcony, glazed balcony, and glazed balcony having the wall separating the adjacent space from the balcony removed. The recordings indicated high-energy consumption in glazed spaces of all models, but difference in performance. The balcony surrounded by 1 wall having the wall separating the balcony from the adjacent space removed recorded the highest cooling demand. Amongst all spaces adjacent to the balconies in the three scenarios, the space adjacent to the unglazed balcony recorded the highest cooling usage. The most efficient adjacent space is when the balcony is glazed. The glazed balcony forms a buffer zone separating the adjacent spaces from the outdoor environment that decreases the heat transfer through the glazed balcony. The thesis presented projections where parameters such as: replacing glazing type by low-e, installing shading devices on 2/3 of the windows, changing the orientation of the balconies, and decreasing the window-to-wall ratio to 30%. There was a clear improvement in all scenarios’ energy consumption when shading devices were added to the glazed balconies models causing the energy consumed in the spaces to decrease. It is hoped that this thesis will contribute significantly to the the performance improvement of the current balcony glazing trend in Lebanon. The “Corniche El Baher” area will be set as a sample for seafronts in Lebanon having similar characteristics.