External shading in buildings: comparative analysis of daylighting performance in static and kinetic operation scenarios

The paper presents a new enumerative method and tool to quantify and compare the potential contribution of kinetic and static external shading elements in buildings, in terms of dynamic measurement of daylighting. The suggested method and tool may help designers to examine the impact of various louver design and operation alternatives in the early stages of the design process. It also allows comparing the potential contribution of different dynamic louver movement scenarios to internal illuminance. This can help designers to better evaluate and compare different dynamic systems, which can be more cost effective. The method and tool are tested on a case study of an office building in a Mediterranean climate, by calculating and comparing the values of useful daylight internal illuminances in static, seasonally adjusted and dynamic louver setup scenarios in comparison to those without louvers. The results of the case study illustrate the contribution of the suggested method and tool to designing for high useful daylight levels. The case study’s illuminance evaluation shows an increase of −1.82% to 7.99%, −1.4% to 11.67% and 10.86% to 33.6% in level of the adapted useful daylight illuminances in static, seasonally adjusted and dynamic external shadings scenarios correspondingly in comparison to the no external shading scenario.