Abstract | The contemporary trend to large areas of glass in the outside walls of buildings has resulted in very substantial increases in the air conditioning requirements of these buildings. In some cases, the cost of the extra cooling capacity necessitated by the use of glass walls is twice as much as the cost of the glass itself. It is, therefore, very important to be able to calculate accurately the cooling loads of buildings with glass curtain walls or large window areas. This paper contains a lucid summary of the heat transfer phenomena that occur in a glass wall that is exposed to solar radiation. It includes, as an example, an analysis of the reduction in heat gain that can be achieved by using blinds and heat absorbing glass. The example is for a building in Rome, but the results are pertinent for southern Ontario and the northern states of the United States. |
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