Intelligent building envelope solutions in Finnish new and old apartment buildings

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of intelligent building envelope solutions (automated blinds, openable windows, and awnings as well as electrochromic windows) in Finnish old and new apartment buildings. Moreover, the results are compared to the passive solutions (manual blinds and solar protection windows). The main goal was to compare the performance of each solution in improving the indoor temperature conditions in Finland’s current climate. Thus, the solutions were simulated with the usage of a mechanical cooling system in the living room to see the effects on both the energy demand of the buildings and indoor temperature conditions in the warmest bedroom. Furthermore, indoor temperature conditions were analyzed in the warmest bedroom of the new
building without an active cooling system, as well. According to the results, electrochromic and solar protection windows are the solutions with the lowest cooling electricity consumption in the old building. However, in the new building, the lowest cooling electricity consumption is for the case with the automated openable windows and the next effective solutions are solar protection and electrochromic windows. Considering the results of indoor temperature conditions, the combination of solar protection windows and manual blinds is the most effective solution in the old building. While automated openable windows have the best performance in the new building with or without the active cooling system. Overall, passive solutions are more effective in both the old and new apartment buildings except for automated openable windows in the new building.