Assessment of the impact of window screens on indoor thermal comfort and energy efficiency in a naturally ventilated courtyard house. (3rd September 2017) - Mousa, Wael A. Yousef
ABSTRACT: The present paper assesses the contribution of window screens to the indoor thermal comfort in a vernacular courtyard house. The adaptive thermal comfort standard EN 15251 was adopted to carry out the evaluation of the case study which achieved accepted operative temperatures along the summer. The maximum indoor temperatures were reduced, in average of 5.5°C and 4.2°C below ambient for two different spaces. The window screens were then removed in the simulation model in TRNSYS, which resulted in increase of the indoor temperatures with an average of 2.4°C. The window screens were found to be efficient in reducing the cooling demand of 50% and 40% in two different spaces. However, considering the winter sun solstice, the absence of the window screens contributes to a slight increase of indoor temperature and hence decrease of the energy demand required for heating during winter time.