Analysis of Heating and Cooling Loads of Electrochromic Glazing in High-Rise Residential Buildings in South Korea

This study compares the impact of the recently developed electrochromic glazing technology on load reduction by comparing it with the double-glazing and shading devices that are sold commercially for high-rise residential buildings in Korea. These buildings are similar to large office buildings in terms of their high window-to-wall ratio. The energy consumption of such buildings was simulated using an analytical model of a high-rise residential building. The patterns between the heating and cooling loads were found to be similar to that of office buildings, in that the cooling load was considerably higher than the heating load. This study hypothesizes that the load reduction performance of electrochromic glazing with variable solar control and high solar radiation rejection is superior to that of existing double-glazing products and shading devices. This hypothesis was tested by analyzing the cooling and heating loads of buildings with different types of double glazings. Bleached electrochromic glazing exhibited lower transmittance than colored glass double glazing, low-e double glazing, and double glazing with a shading device, and is thus not effective in reducing heating load. Colored electrochromic glazing provided higher solar radiation rejection than colored glass double glazing and low-e double glazing, and thus is effective in reducing cooling load.