Energy performance of the silica aerogel glazing system in commercial building of Hong Kong

To achieve a more comfortable indoor environment while still retaining low energy consumption level is an exciting challenge for building designers and owners. In this paper, a silica-aerogel filled super-insulating glazing system was proposed. A simulation study was conducted to analyse the energy performance of the proposed glazing system. EnergyPlus was applied in the simulation study. In the study of the energy performance, three control strategies (space temperature control, operative temperature control and PMV control) were applied to simulate the occupant's control behaviour toward the air-conditioning system in reality. The result indicated that compared with conventional single clear glazing, the silica aerogel glazing could retain a 4% longer thermally comfort period, while the energy consumption of HVAC system was reduced by 4% to 7%. It is also concluded that as the occupant's request on thermal comfort got stricter, the performance of the silica aerogel glazing would became better.