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Electrochromic window (ECW) has been gradually applied to building engineering in recent years. However, empirical study of this technology used in green building design is still lacking. This study aims to verify the lighting and energy-saving performance of ECW under a specific geographical environment.

The meditation pavilion of Jinwan new materials research institute in Zhuhai is taken for research object. Three kinds of sun-shading techniques, namely, ECW, Low-E window and ordinary glass window, with same specifications are selected as the building facade structure for simulation. Day lighting analysis, sun-shading performance and annual energy consumption are separately simulated in the same environment by the Autodesk Ecotect Analysis software. The energy-saving performance of ECW is obtained by comparisons.

Result shows that the shading performance of ECW is much better than ordinary window and Low-E window. When ECW is used in the east, west or top lighting interfaces of a building, about 40% of the total solar radiation can be reduced during daytime in summer. Taking the ordinary glass window as a basic reference, ECW can save about 90% of the annual energy consumption of the glass house. ECW can effectively reduce the annual refrigeration energy consumption of buildings in the subtropical region.

Reasonable use of ECW in the subtropical region can effectively reduce the annual energy consumption of buildings.

It is a precedent study to analyze the lighting performance and energy consumption of a glass house with ECW. The energy-saving characteristics and beautiful appearance of ECW shall make it a future green building technology.

This chapter offers a specific point of view on the Town Centre retail, in ­order to develop a new way to enhance the customer retail experience in this place. The combination of shopping over the Internet and the interactive technologies represents for Town Centre retailers one of the possible solutions in the creation of a multisensory experience for people living in and visiting this urban area. By welcoming the challenge of creating multisensory experiences, “bricks and mortar” stores need to integrate digital solutions to create and handle experiences. Customers can interact with people and contents via digital technologies such as Quick Response, Electrochromic Glass, Touch Systems, Outdoor Totems, Holographic Technology, and Augmented Reality. From the analysis of the academic literature emerges an agreement that the use of the Internet and interactive technologies are not totally exploited as tools able to revitalize the Town Centre retail and create animated, lively streets that offer multisensory experiences. Based on the above considerations, this chapter provides a theoretical model in order to create an immersive retail experience within the physical store by combining the use of the Internet to conduct shopping and the interaction with several kinds of technologies.

The performance of the building envelope of a large-scale public building significantly influences the energy consumption of such a building. This study aims to determine the best strategy for the envelope by examining the engineering design of the building in Nanchang University. The building shape coefficient, sun-shading strategies, window–wall ratio, roof, and walls were studied through a method involving multilayer feed-forward neural network model simulations. Results show that the optimum shape coefficient value is 0.32. The combination of interior and exterior blinds and electrochromic glass is the ideal option to reduce the increase in the energy consumption of the architecture caused by solar radiation. Maintaining the window–wall ratio at 0.4 is ideal. A green roof exerts a minimal effect on building energy consumption decrease (only 0.4%). Applying the strategy of vertical greening to the external wall can reduce cooling energy consumption by as much as 5.4%. Adopting the best envelope strategy combination can further decrease energy consumption by 20.8%. This strategy is also applicable to the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River in China, which flow through Nanchang and have a climate similar to that of the said area. Future research should be directed toward applying artificial neural networks to quantitatively evaluate the effects of a design strategy and produce the best design strategy combination.

Outlines the development of window and cladding technology in the UK, dealing with two current projects – Fenestration 2000 and The Centre for Window and Cladding Technology at the University of Bath – which are directed at improving UK performance in the window and cladding sector of construction. Suggests that the most successful companies of tomorrow may be those that not only anticipate, but create the future.

The aim of this study is to propose solutions to ensure comfort conditions for users by taking advantage of the bioclimatic architecture. This could serve as a solution to the energy shortage problem.

In this context, 40 bioclimatic buildings located in Greece were analyzed. These bioclimatic buildings were classified according to their climatic zones, functions, parameters pertaining to the physical and built environment, and the passive methods used for heating, cooling and lighting.

The high share of residential buildings in the distribution of Greece’s bioclimatic buildings according to climatic zones can be attributed to the large number of users that residential buildings have when compared to other types of buildings. Among the physical environmental parameters, climatic parameters were found to be highly influential. Other parameters had less significant effects, depending on land conditions.

This study revealed the importance of bioclimatic applications in creating energy-efficient buildings. It is also important in terms of setting an example for creating bioclimatic architectural profiles of other countries.

The paper aims to design the optimum formulation of the nano-titanium dioxide (TiO2) hydrophilic coating system using the synthetic polypropylene glycol (PPG), which can create the reflection and absorption property.

TiO2 nanoparticles are used as fillers, and PPG has been blended at the proper ratio of 1PPG: 0.2TiO2. The prepared resin has been applied onto the glass substrate at different numbers of glass immersions during the dip-coating fabrication process. One-time glass immersion is labeled as T1 coating, two-time glass immersion is labeled as T2 coating and three-time glass immersion is labeled as T3 coating. All the prepared coating systems were left dry at ambient temperature.

T3 coating showed the lowest reading of WCA value at 40.50°, due to higher surface energy at 61.73 mN/m. The T3 coating also shows the greatest absorbance property among the prepared coating systems among the prepared coating. In terms of reflectance property, the T2 coating system has great reflectance in UV region and near-infrared region, which is 16.47% and 2.77 and 2.73%, respectively. The T2 coating also has great optical transmission about 75.00% at the visible region.

The development of thermal insulation coating by studying the relationship between convection heat and reflectance at different wavelengths of incident light.

The developed coating shows high potential for glass window application.

The application of the hydrophilic coating on light absorption, reflectance and transmission at different wavelengths.