Renewable Energy 55 (2013) 448e455

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

The route to a perfect window

Hong Ye*, Xianchun Meng, Linshuang Long, Bin Xu
Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Received 15 August 2012 Accepted 16 January 2013 Available online 9 February 2013 Keywords: Perfect window Energy consumption index Near infrared regulating Long wave thermal emission regulating

a b s t r a c t
Based on the concept of the perfect window, the energy saving performances and the corresponding theoretical limitations of the active/passive smart windows regulating the solar spectrum response properties or the long wave thermal emission window regulating thermal emission property were discussed using energy consumption index. It is found out that: ideal active/passive smart window scan realize maximum regulation of near-infrared (NIR) spectrum transmission by adjusting reection and realize smart energy saving effect in both summer and winter, however, the transmission regulation of actual active/passive smart windows relies on the adjusting of absorption rather than reection, and their solar spectrum transmissions in both NIR reection and transmission states are lower than that of ordinary glazing, thus they can only realize energy saving effect in summer, and their performance is worse than that of ordinary glazing in winter; although ideal summer/winter long wave thermal emission window can achieve the best radiative cooling/insulating effect by controlling the radiation heat transfer between the window and the inner surfaces of a room, the energy saving effect of low-e window in summer is because of its low solar spectrum transmission, the contribution of the long wave emissivity is neglectable, but the long wave emissivity is critical for the energy saving performance in winter; the energy saving potential of regulating the solar spectrum response properties is greater than that of regulating the long wave thermal emission property in summer, and the trend is contrary in winter; by properly regulating the NIR spectrum transmission and reection properties and long wave thermal emission property, the performance of an ordinary glazing can be improved to approach the perfect window for summer or winter. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction As the exterior-protection constructions of the weakest thermal insulation performance of buildings, energy efcient windows have become a subject of intensive study in building energy conservation. There are three directions to develop energy efcient window technologies, including regulating the thermal resistance of windows through structure design, regulating the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum response properties, and regulating the long wave thermal emission properties. There are many mature technologies for structure design, such as multi-layer glazing [1], double-vacuum glazing, double glazing lled with inert gas or transparent insulation materials like silica aerogel, photovoltaic glazing [2], airow window [3,4], water-ow window [5] and a variety of advanced energy-efcient window frame systems [6].The technologies regulating the solar spectrum response properties involve tinted glazing, reective glazing [5,7], angular selective transmittance

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 86 0551 3607281. E-mail address: hye@ustc.edu.cn (H. Ye). 0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2013.01.003

coatings [8], chromic technologies [9,10], liquid crystals, and electrophoretic or suspend-particle devices. Low emissivity coatings [11] and spectrally selective coatings [12e14] are two main technologies in regulating the long wave thermal emission properties. Although energy saving performances of many energy efcient windows have been extensively studied [15e18], the energy saving limitation of each window technology and how to realize the best energy saving performance by the combination of various technologies are worthy to be discussed. Considering the complexity of multi-layer glazing technologies, the theoretical limitation and practical energy saving performances of single glazing through regulating the NIR transmittance and/or regulating the emissivity are discussed in this paper. The concepts of the perfect windows for summer and for winter and the energy consumption index (ECI) have been discussed in the previous work [19]. Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the perfect window for summer and for winter. The purpose of dening the perfect windows is to set a common standard for various windows, similar to that of ideal specic heat for building internal thermal mass [20]. The perfect window for summer has no absorbability in solar spectrum. It is transparent to visible light, and

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outside

inside thermal radiation

outside

inside

thermal radiation solar irradiation

thermal radiation

thermal radiation

solar irradiation near infrared visible

(a) Perfect window for summer

(b) Perfect window for winter

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the perfect windows.

totally reective to the solar radiation beyond 0.7 mm and below 0.4 mm. It is unidirectional transparent to long wave thermal radiation, i.e., the thermal radiation emitted from the indoor surfaces can totally transmit to the outside, but that from the outside will be totally reected back. The perfect window for winter is totally transparent to the entire solar spectrum, and totally reective to the thermal radiation from indoor and outdoor surfaces. The perfect windows for winter and summer are the ultimate goals of single layer energy efcient windows. ECI is dened as the ratio of the indoor heating/cooling energy consumption of a given window to the corresponding value of the perfect window, can be used to evaluation the energy saving performance of windows. From the concepts of the perfect single glazing windows, we can see that there are two ways to improve the energy saving performance of single glazing windows, i.e., regulating the NIR solar spectrum response properties and/or regulating the long wave thermal emission property. In order to explore the energy saving limitation of the above-mentioned two ways, several ideal window models such as ideal active/passive smart windows, ideal summer/winter long wave thermal emission window are presented in this paper. Ideal active/passive smart windows can realize the maximal NIR spectral transmission regulation through regulating the reectance of the NIR spectrum and realize intelligent control of the heat gain of the room. The inner surface of the ideal long wave thermal emission windows can realize the optimal radiative cooling or insulation effect. Here we adopted active/passive smart windows and sunshield/high transmission type low-e windows as the practical study objects in the directions of regulating the NIR solar spectrum response properties and regulating the long wave thermal emission property, respectively. The energy saving performances of the ideal active/passive smart windows, ideal summer/ winter long wave thermal emission windows, and the abovementioned practical ones were evaluated with the concept of ECI. And the technical route from an ordinary glazing to a perfect window was presented. 2. The route to perfect windows 2.1. The concepts of several ideal windows Most of the solar spectrum at the earths surface is within the wavelength range of 0.25e2.5 mm, including visible part between 0.4 and 0.7 mm and NIR part between 0.7 and 2.5 mm. The visible part carries about 42.8% of the entire solar energy and the NIR about

52.5% [21]. The heat transfer coefcient of ordinary single glazing falls among 5.6e6.4 W/(m2 K), representing a poor thermal insulation performance. The transmittance of the ordinary glazing is high in visible and NIR wavelength, but is very low in the long wave wavelength. Excessive solar radiation transmitted through the window will increase the indoor cooling load in summer, and the high surface emissivity of the ordinary glazing will lead to signicant heat loss in winter. Regulating the response properties of solar spectrum, especially the NIR spectrum and regulating the long wave thermal emission property are two major directions to pursue energy efcient single glazing. Chromogenic window is the representative technology regulating the response properties of NIR spectrum. Chromogenic technology involves electrochromic, photochromic, thermochromic and gasochromic technologies. When provided with 1e2 V direct current, electrochromic windows can realize the regulation of the solar spectrum transmissivity. According to structure and electrochemical properties, electrochromic materials can be sorted into two categories: inorganic electrochromic materials, the optical absorption change of which is due to the injection/extraction process of ion and electron, and organic electrochromic materials, the optical absorption change of which is because of redox reaction. As the most mature smart window, with a small voltage difference, electrochromic windows can transform between high and low transmission states in solar spectrum [22e24]. WO3 lm is the most widely used electrochromic lm in electrochromic technology. The smart layer of gasochromic window is made up of a Pt catalyst layer coated on the surface of WO3 lm and a cavity [25], and can realize the regulation of solar spectrum transmission when provided with a certain amount of hydrogen gas. Thermochromic window is prepared by coating a thermochromic phase change material (PCM) on the surface of glass or other transparent substrates. The optical properties of the thermochromic PCM can automatically change according to the variation of its temperature, thus realize the regulation of the solar spectrum transmission. VO2 lm is the most extensively investigated reversible thermochromic material [22,26,27]. The optical properties of the photochromic window will change when irradiated by light (in particular ultraviolet ray), and restore the original state when the light been removed. Photochromic window has not been used in buildings because of high cost. The chromogenic windows can be grouped into active (electrochromic and gasochromic windows) and passive (thermochromic and photochromic window) smart windows according to the need or needless of articial stimulus. There are

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H. Ye et al. / Renewable Energy 55 (2013) 448e455 Table 1 Radiation characteristics of the ideal active smart window. Optical property NIR transmission state Visible NIR 1 0 0 NIR reection state Visible 1 0 0 NIR 0 1 0

several problems in the practical application of smart windows [22], one of which is the regulation mechanism and the effectiveness of regulating the solar spectrum transmittance: the regulation of solar spectrum transmission is mainly due to the change of absorption rather than that of reection. Therefore, the high solar spectrum regulation ratio would lead to very low visible light transmission [28], and the decrement of indoor heat gain caused by the decrease of solar spectrum transmission could be counteracted by the increment of indoor heat gain caused by the increase of solar spectrum absorption in metal state. The smart layer of practical active smart windows is electrochromic layer consisting of ve lms or gasochromic layer involving two lms and a cavity, as shown in Fig. 2 (a) and (b) respectively. Here we dene the ideal smart windows as those cannot only meet the indoor lighting need but also regulate the NIR transmission in maximum by regulating NIR reection. Ideal smart windows can realize the smart shading or high transmission to solar radiation in a whole year, they can also be grouped into active or passive ones according to the need or needless of articial stimulation. Fig. 2(c) shows the conception of the ideal active smart window consisting of an ideal active smart layer sandwiched by two idea high transmission glasses. The ideal active smart layer is dened as follows:(1) no absorption in solar spectrum; (2) in NIR transmission state, the entire solar spectrum can transmit through it into the room; (3) In NIR reection state, the visible light (0.4e0.7 mm) can transmit through it into the room, nevertheless, the NIR radiation beyond 0.7 mm and the ultraviolet wave below 0.4 mm can be totally reected. The ideal high transmission glass is dened as follows: it is transparent in the entire solar spectrum; its long wave emissivity is 0.84, equal to that of the ordinary glazing. Table 1shows the radiation characteristics of the ideal active smart window. Similar denition can be used for the ideal passive smart window except the stimulation of the state transition. The change between the NIR transmission and reection states for the ideal passive smart window will occur only when the temperature or the density of solar irradiance incident on the surface reaches a certain value. Low-e glass is the abbreviation of low emissivity coating glass ( 0:05w0:15) [11]. The best location of the low emissivity coating for single low-e glass is the indoor side. The energy saving performance of the low-e glass is generally attributed to the reduction of the radiation heat transfer caused by the temperature difference between the window and indoor surfaces through reducing the long wave emissivity of the glass surface. The decrease of emissivity is often accompanied with the decrease of visible light transmittance, so the low-e glass meeting the summer need can not necessarily meet the need of winter, and vice versa. There are two kinds of low-e glasses, i.e., high transmission type and sunshade type. The former works for winter or the areas needing heating load, the latter for summer or the areas needing cooling load. Application of low-e window according to the climates and the facing of windows can effectively reduce the energy consumption in buildings.

s r a

1 0 0

The temperature of a window is determined by a combination inuence of the solar radiation, the temperatures of indoor air and surfaces, outdoor air temperature, outdoor ground temperature and the effective sky temperature. In winter when heating is on, the outdoor air and the effective sky temperatures are both lower than those of indoor air and surfaces. Thus the window temperature is lower than the temperatures of the indoor surfaces. In this case, a lower inner surface emissivity would decrease the radiation heat transfer caused by the temperature difference between the window and the indoor surfaces, so the heat loss would decrease and the energy saving performance would improve. In summer when cooling is on, the effective sky temperature is usually the lowest, the outdoor air temperature is usually higher than those of the indoor air and surfaces. In this case, the inuence of the emissivity of the window on cooling load depends on the direction of the net radiation heat transfer between the window and the indoor surfaces. Our simulation results showed that: in summer, the impact of the inner surface emissivity on the energy saving effect of single glazing depends on the weather condition, the building structure, the control strategy of cooling and the indoor heat source. When using normal control strategy (the indoor air temperature is 27  C, the heat source is 200 W), it was found out that with the increase of the inner surface emissivity, the radiation heat ow from the window to the indoor surfaces would increase in daytime, and the radiation heat ow from indoor surfaces to window would also increase at night, but the increment of the latter is greater than the former, leading to a better energy saving effect for higher inner surface emissivity. To facilitate comparison, the denitions of the ideal long wave thermal emission windows are as follows: the solar spectral response properties of the ideal winter long wave thermal emission window are the same as those of the high transmission type low-e glass, and the emissivity of the inner surface is zero, so the radiation heat transfer caused by the temperature difference between the window and the indoor surfaces is zero, thus to realize the maximum thermal radiation insulation effect; the solar spectral response properties of the ideal summer long wave thermal emission window are the same as those of the sunshade type low-e glass, and the emissivity of the inner surface is unity, thus to realize the maximum radiation cooling effect under the condition of normal control strategy. 2.2. The developing route of energy efcient single glazing

Glass H2/O2 Pt WO3 Glass

Glass
Transparent conductor

Ideal high transmission glass

Ideal active smart layer

Li V O Polymer electrolyte Tungsten oxide

Transparent conductor

Glass

Ideal high transmission glass

(a) gasochromic

(b) electrochromic

(c)

ideal active smart window

Fig. 2. Structures of the practical and ideal active smart windows.

Based on the above discussions, the developing route of energy efcient single glazing is presented in Fig. 3. The ordinary single glazing has the highest ECI and the perfect window has the lowest ECI equal to unity. Theoretically, through regulating the NIR solar spectrum response properties, practical smart windows such as electrochromic, photochromic, thermochromic and gasochromic windows can realize the transmission regulation of solar spectrum, especially the NIR spectrum, so the ECI of the practical smart windows should be lower than that of the ordinary single glazing. Ideal active/passive smart windows can realize the maximum regulation of solar spectrum transmission and the ECIs of them should be lower than those of the corresponding practical ones.

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The perfect window

Near infrared regulation

Ideal active smart window

Ideal passive smart window

Ideal long wave thermal emission window

Long wave thermal emission regulation

Electrochromic Gasochromic Thermochromic Photochromic

Low-E window

Ordinary single glazing

Fig. 3. The developing route of energy efcient single glazing.

Through regulating the long wave thermal emission, compared with the ordinary single glazing, sunshade type low-e window can decrease the heat gain in the room for summer and high transmission type window can increase the heat gain, so the ECIs of them should be lower than that of the ordinary single glazing. Ideal long wave thermal emission window can realize the maximum thermal radiative cooling or insulation effect, its ECI should be lower than that of the practical low-e window. The perfect window for summer can realize the minimum transmissivity in NIR wavelength and the maximum radiation cooling effect, the perfect window for winter can realize the maximum transmissivity in NIR wavelength and the maximum thermal insulation effect. The perfect window is the goal and the limitation of single glazing technology, and serves as a reference standard. In order to analysis the energy saving potential of single glazing technologies in different directions given in Fig. 3, the software BuildingEnergy [19] was used to simulate the energy consumptions of various windows. 3. The smart regulation of NIR wavelength 3.1. The energy consumption analysis of ideal and practical active smart windows The performance of the passive smart window has been explored in previous work [19], and a brief introduction will be given later. Here we focused on the performance of the ideal and practical active smart windows. The physical model of the standard room in software BuildingEnergy is as follows: located in the middle of a building, only the southern wall and window are exposed to the environment while the other walls are internal ones. The geometric dimensions of the room are: 4.0 m in depth, 3.3 m in width and 2.8 m in height. The thickness of the wall is 30 cm, and in the center of the southern wall there is a 1.5 m 1.5 m window. The heat transfer process of the above mentioned room involves four aspects: the heat transfer through the exterior-protection constructions, the heat transfer inside the room, the ventilation, and heat transfer induced by air conditioning. The following assumptions are made: 1) The thermal conduction through the walls, ceiling and the oor is onedimensional; 2) There is no object that can store heat; 3) There is no heat transfer to or from the adjacent rooms; 4) The indoor air temperature is maintained at 20 or 27  C during heating or cooling

period, respectively [30]; 5) The ventilation rate is set as n 1 time/ h [31]; 6) All equipment is 100% efcient with no duct losses and no capacity limitations; 7) A 200 W heat source is set in the room. Five cities including Haerbin, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Kunming representing ve typical climates (severe cold, cold, hot summer and cold winter, hot summer and warm winter, and mild climate) were discussed in this paper. The climates and the heating/cooling periods of the ve different cities can be found in the literature [19]. Table 2 shows the response properties of the electrochromic window [28] and the gaschromic window [32] in solar spectrum. Bleached state represents the NIR transmission state, colored state represents the NIR reection state. The substrates of the electrochromic glazing and the gaschromic glazing are both ordinary glazing, so the long wave emissivity is 0.84. The transmissivity, reectivity, absorptivity and emissivity of the ordinary glazing discussed in this paper are 0.83, 0.075, 0.095 and 0.84 respectively [19]. From Tables 1 and 2 we can see that the difference among the ideal active smart window, electrochromic, gaschromic and ordinary windows: (1) visible light transmittance: the value of the ideal active smart window is always 100%; the value of electrochromic glass or gaschromic glass is very low in colored state; the value of the ordinary single glazing can meet the lighting need of the room; (2) the amplitude of regulating the solar radiation transmittance: the gaschromic glazing has the maximum amplitude of regulating solar radiation transmittance, from 75% to 15%; the corresponding value of the ideal active smart window is from 100% to 42.8%; the electrochromic glass has a relatively small amplitude, from 54.9% to 10.7%; while the ordinary single glazing has no regulating effect to solar radiation; (3) the solar radiation regulation mechanism: the

Table 2 Response properties of electrochromic [28] and gaschromic window [32] in solar spectrum. The integrated Electrochromic windows Gasochromic windows radiation Bleached state Colored state Bleached state Colored state properties in solar Solar Visible Solar Visible Solar Visible Solar Visible spectrum

s r a

0.549 0.148 0.303

0.726 0.103 0.171

0.107 0.176 0.127 0.076 0.766 0.748

0.75 0.15 0.1

0.76 0.15 0.09

0.15 0.08 0.77

0.18 0.07 0.75

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change of the solar spectrum transmittance of the ideal active smart window is due to the change of reection, while that of the electrochromic or gaschromic glazing is mainly due to the change of the absorption rather than the reection. The indoor energy consumptions of the summer/winter perfect windows and the ordinary single glazing have been given in previous work [19]. Since the energy consumption of the summer perfect window in Kunming is 0, no ECI can be calculated for this city, so it is not discussed here. Fig. 4 shows the ECIs of the ideal active window, electrochromic, gaschromic and ordinary single glazing for summer and winter in each city. In the calculation, when cooling is on, the ideal and practical active smart window are set in the low transmission state, when heating is on, they are set in high transmission state [29]. From Fig. 4, it can be seen that in summer the ECI of Haerbin is the highest, those of the other cities are close to each other; in winter the ECI of Haerbin turns to be the lowest. And it is obvious that the ECI of the ideal active smart window is lower than those of the practical active smart windows and ordinary single glazing in both summer and winter; the ECIs of the practical active smart windows are lower than that of ordinary single glazing in summer, but the results are contrary in winter. Thus, compared with the ordinary single glazing, the ideal active smart windows can realize energy saving in both summer and winter, but the practical active smart windows can only effect in summer and are not energy efcient in winter. With the data in Table 2 and Fig. 4, we can see that: when the practical active smart windows such as the electrochromic and gaschromic windows are in colored state, their solar radiation transmittance is lower than that of the ordinary single glazing, leading to a decrease of the heat gain, so they are more energy efcient than the ordinary single glazing. However, when the practical active smart windows are in bleached state in winter, their solar radiation transmittance are still lower than that of the ordinary single glazing, leading to an increase of the heating load. Thus, it is critical to improve the solar spectrum transmittance of the active smart windows in bleached state. The solar spectrum

transmittance of the gaschromic window in colored state is lower than that of the ideal active smart window. However, because of its high solar spectrum absorption, its ECI is still higher than that of the ideal active smart window. Hence, decrease of the solar spectrum absorption of the gaschromic window in colored state can improve its performance in summer. 3.2. The energy saving performance of the ideal and actual passive smart windows The structure of the ideal passive smart window is similar to that of the ideal active smart window, only the chromic layer is on the outside of the glass substrate. The solar radiation response properties are similar to those of the latter. The energy saving effect of the actual passive smart window is similar to that of the active one: it is more energy efcient than the ordinary single glazing in summer and the trend is contrary in winter. Because of the high absorption in NIR reection state, the phase transition process from the semiconductor state to the metal state for the current single VO2 glazing has no contribution to the energy saving effect in summer [19]. 4. The regulation of the long wave thermal emission As mentioned before, low-e glass of high transmission works for winter or the area in need of heating, low-e glass of low transmission works for summer or the area in need of cooling. Table 3 shows the radiation properties of the sunshade type low-e glazing (ID is 919 in WINDOW6.0), the high transmission type low-e glazing (ID is 920) and the ideal summer/winter long wave thermal emission windows. From the discussion in section 1.1, we can see that when the inner surface emissivity of the low-e glazing is 0 in summer and 1 in winter, the cooling load in summer or the heating loading in winter would reach a maximal value. Fig. 5 shows the ECIs of the ideal long wave thermal emission window, the low-e window, the

12.00 10.00 8.00 7.30 7.70

10.86

Summer

6.81

ECI

6.00

4.00
2.22 2.34 2.41 2.00 0.00 Haerbin 4.00 3.50 3.00 Beijing

2.84

2.40 1.98 2.03 2.08

2.35 1.95 2.03 2.07

Shanghai 3.25 2.95 2.73

Guangzhou

Winter
2.43

3.33 2.54

3.03

2.82

ECI

2.50
2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 1.38 1.52 1.47 1.43

0.00
Haerbin Beijing Shanghai

Ideal active smart window

Electrochromic window

Gasochromic window

Ordinary single glazing

Fig. 4. The ECIs of the ideal active smart window, electrochromic, gaschromic and ordinary single glazing for summer and winter of each city.

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Table 3 The radiation properties of the high transmission type and sunshade type low-e glazings and the ideal summer/winter long wave thermal emission window in WINDOW6.0 (1and 2 represent inner and outer surfaces, respectively). Type Sunshade 919 Ideal summer long wave thermal emission window High transmission 920 Ideal winter long wave thermal emission window

ssol
0.383 0.383 0.590 0.590

rsol,1
0.464 0.464 0.273 0.273

rsol,2
0.346 0.346 0.229 0.229

asol,1
0.153 0.153 0.137 0.137

asol,2
0.271 0.271 0.181 0.181

svis
0.652 0.652 0.851 0.851

1 0.035 1 0.066 0

2 0.840 0.840 0.841 0.841

ordinary single glazing, and the low-e glazing with the inner surface emissivity being 0 in summer and 1 in winter for different cities. From Fig. 5 we can see that the tendency of the ESIs among the cities is: the ECI of Harerbin is the highest in summer; while in winter is the lowest. It can be seen that the ideal winter/summer long wave thermal emission windows are the most energy efcient, indicating that the regulation of the long wave emissivity is an effective mean to improve the performance of the window. There is no signicant difference among the ECIs of the ideal summer long wave thermal emission window, the practical low-e glazing and the low-e glazing with the inner surface emissivity being 0, however, they are all lower than that of the ordinary single glazing. It indicates that the cooling load induced by the transmitted solar irradiation dominates, and the variation of the emissivity only impacts the value of heat transfer coefcient U and has a weak effect on the cooling load in summer. Hence, the energy saving effect of the low-e window in summer is mainly due to the low

transmittance of solar radiation. There is a remarkable decrease of ECI from the low-e window with the inner surface emissivity being 1 to the ideal winter long wave thermal emission window, indicating that the energy saving effect of the low-e window is more obvious in winter, a lower emissivity could lead to a better energy saving performance. 5. The ideal full spectrum control window From the analysis of section 2 and 3, it is clear the indoor energy consumption in summer or winter can be effectively reduced through reasonable regulation of the solar spectrum response properties or the long wave thermal emission property of the window. Is it possible to improve the performance of the ordinary single glazing to approach that of the perfect window through appropriate combination of solar spectrum and long wave regulations, i.e., full spectrum regulation? To this end, here we dened

Fig. 5. The ECIs of the ideal long wave thermal emission windows, the practical low-e windows, the ordinary single glazing, and low-e window with the inner surface emissivity being 0 in summer and 1 in winter.

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an ideal full spectrum control window, the spectrum response properties of which are as follows: in winter, the solar spectrum can transmit through it into the room and the long wave emissivity of the inner and outer surfaces are 0 and 0.84 respectively; in summer, visible light can transmit through it into the room, nevertheless, the NIR radiation can be totally reected back, and the long wave emissivity of inner and outer surfaces are 1 and 0.84 respectively. The differences between the ideal full spectrum control window and the perfect window are as follows: the thermal radiation emitted from the indoor surfaces can totally transmit through the summer perfect window to the outside, but cannot transmit through the ideal full spectrum control window; the long wave thermal radiation can be totally reected back by the inner and the outer surfaces of the winter perfect window, however only the inner surface of the ideal full spectrum control window has the function. The differences among the ideal full spectrum control window, the ideal long wave thermal emission window and the ordinary single glazing are as follows: (1) solar spectrum transmission: in summer, the solar spectrum transmittances of the ideal full spectrum control window and the ideal active smart window are the same (0.428), the corresponding values of the ideal long wave thermal radiation window and the ordinary single glazing are 0.383 and 0.83 respectively; in winter, the corresponding values of each window are 1, 1, 0.59 and 0.83 respectively; (2) the long wave emissivity of the inner surface: the values of the ideal full spectrum control window and the ideal active smart window are 1 in summer and 0 in winter, and those of the ideal active smart window and the ordinary single glazing are all 0.84 for summer and winter.

Fig. 6 shows the ECIs of the ideal full spectrum control window, the ideal long wave thermal emission window, the ideal active smart window and the ordinary single glazing window in each typical city. In this gure, the tendency of the ECIs among the cities is the same with that in Figs. 4 and 5. From Fig. 6, it is apparent that compared to the ordinary single glazing, simultaneously regulating the solar spectrum response properties and the long wave thermal emission property can signicantly decrease the energy consumption. In summer, the ECIs of the ideal full spectrum control window and the ideal active smart window are all lower than that of the ordinary single glazing. The ECI difference between the ideal full spectrum control window and the ideal active smart window represents the energy saving effect of regulating the surface long wave thermal emission property of the window. The ECI difference between the ideal active smart window and the ordinary single glazing represents the energy saving effect of regulating the solar spectrum response properties of the window. From Fig. 6, we can see that the energy saving potential of regulating the solar spectrum response properties is greater than that of regulating the surface long wave thermal emission property in summer. On the contrary, we can see that the energy saving potential of regulating the surface long wave thermal emission property is greater than that of regulating the solar spectrum response properties in winter. The ECIs of the perfect window for summer and winter are both equal to 1, but the ECIs of the ideal full spectrum window are far from that of the summer perfect window. The apparent difference between the perfect window and the ideal full spectrum window is

12.00 10.86 10.00

Summer
7.37 6.59 6.81

8.00

ECI

6.00

4.00

2.19
2.00

2.34

2.84 2.22 1.96 2.05 1.98

2.40

1.94 2.03 1.95

2.35

0.00

Haerbin
3.00 2.50 2.00

Beijing
2.43 2.43

Shanghai
2.73

Guangzhou
2.82 2.54 2.27

Winter
1.55

ECI

1.50 1.14 1.00 0.50 0.00

1.30

1.38

1.43

1.51

Haerbin
Ideal full spectrum control window Ideal active smart window

Beijing

Shanghai
Ideal long wave thermal radiation window Ordinary single glazing

Fig. 6. The ECIs of ideal entire spectrum control window, ideal long wave thermal emission window, ideal active smart window and ordinary in each typical city.

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that the long wave thermal radiation emitted by the indoor surfaces can fully transmit through the former to the sky, while totally absorbed by the latter. So, if the long wave thermal radiation emitted by the indoor surfaces could transmit through the window rather than be absorbed, the energy consumption could be greatly decreased. The difference between the ECIs of the ideal full spectrum window and the perfect window in winter is smaller than that in summer, and the maximum difference is around 55%. If the outdoor surface emissivity of the ideal full spectrum control window changes from 0.84 to 0, the heating load could be cut dramatically. Simultaneously regulating the solar spectrum response properties and the long wave thermal emission property can make the ordinary single glazing approach the summer/winter perfect window. However, due to the opacity of the glass substrate to the long wave thermal radiation, the ordinary single glazing cannot be turned into the summer perfect window. 6. Conclusions Ideal active/passive smart window and ideal long wave thermal emission window models are presented according to the properties of the actual active/passive smart windows and low-e windows. Based on the concept of the perfect window and ECI, the actual energy saving performance and the corresponding theoretical limitation of regulating the solar spectrum response properties and the long wave thermal emission property are evaluated. The main conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) The solar spectrum transmission regulation of the actual active/passive smart windows depends mainly on the change of absorption rather than that of reection. The visible light transmission of the actual active/passive smart windows in NIR reection state is very low, and could increase the lighting energy consumption. And the solar spectrum transmittances of them in both NIR reection and NIR transmission states are very low, leading to a better energy saving effect in summer but a worse one in winter than that of the ordinary single glazing. The energy saving effect of low-e window in summer is because of the low transmission, the effect of the long wave emissivity is relatively small, but the long wave emissivity is very important for the energy saving performance in winter. (2) The ideal active smart window can intelligently regulate indoor heat gain and realize energy saving effect in summer and winter, but the ideal passive smart window can only effect in summer. The ideal long wave thermal emission window has the capacity of maximum thermal radiation insulation/cooling and can realize energy saving effect in summer and winter. The ideal full spectrum control window can simultaneously regulate the solar spectrum regulation properties and the long wave thermal emission property, and can realize dramatic energy saving effect in summer and winter. (3) Regulating the solar spectrum response properties and regulating the long wave thermal emission property can both reduce the indoor energy consumption. But the energy saving potential of the former one is greater than that of the latter in summer, and the trend is contrary in winter. Simultaneously regulating the solar spectrum response properties and the long wave thermal emission property can make ordinary single glazing approach the summer/winter perfect window. Acknowledgment This work is funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (grant no 2009CB939904), the Fundamental Research Funds

for the Central Universities, and the Key Laboratory of Inorganic Coating Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences. References
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