Involvement of shading systems in visual comfort of educational school premises in Cyprus

Abstract

Existing building stock in Cyprus and other European countries was found by many researchers to consume great amount of energy for heating and cooling but also the use of artificial lighting burdens energy consumption. Many findings associated the above with lack of bioclimatic architecture, proper design solutions, insulation, and insufficient shading systems causing overheating and glazing. This master’s thesis trade with thermal and visual comfort of secondary school premises in Cyprus. It mainly aims to investigate the natural lighting performance in school classrooms and propose solutions to improve visual comfort of occupants with the use of external shading devices such as vertical louvers with or without inclination, horizontal louvers, light shelfs and black out external curtains in south and east facing classrooms. Site measurements were taken on different days and hours of the year, then analysed and with the outcomes different strategies were implemented with the use of Design Builder software in order to find the optimal solutions for each orientation which would minimize glare issues and excessive illuminance levels in classrooms.