Glazing and Winter Comfort Tool featured in The Architect’s Newspaper

The Architect’s Newspaper featured our Glazing and Winter Comfort Tool, the research behind it and our process. We designed this tool as a response to the challenges of quantifying how glazing performance and geometry will affect the need for supplemental perimeter heating early in the design process. This tool displays the impact of glazing geometry and U-value on occupant thermal comfort during winter months.

Haven’t tried the tool yet? Now’s the time! Check out our sample case study to help you get started.

Read the article. Try the tool. Design sustainably.

Case Study
Impact of Glazing Geometry on Comfort

The design of a high performance building often involves setting a target glazing ratio. However, for the same glazing ratio, the possible glazing scenarios can lead to very different thermal comfort conditions.

This case study considers a project under design with a goal of 50% window-to-wall ratio, where the team wanted to avoid the use of perimeter heat in the offices. Three very different glazing are considered: Short punched windows with a 3’ sill (Case 1) are compared to tall windows without a sill (Case 2) and to ribbon windows with the same 3’ sill (Case 3). For an occupant sitting 3’ from the window, only Case 3 provides comfort levels below the goal (<10% PPD-Radiant and <20% PPD-Downdraft).

In Cases 1 and 2 downdraft ( ^ ) will be too strong to ensure occupant comfort without the use of perimeter heating.