Effects of Shading Strategy and Orientation on Energy Performance of School Building

Abstract: Excess solar gain in buildings affects the building’s energy performance; however an optimal choice ofoverhangs and fins can tackle this issue to a remarkable extent. This study analyzes various alternatives of overhangsand fins attached to south, west and east facades of an elementary school building in Los Angeles, to select the bestshading strategy in terms of energy performance. By considering ‘no-overhang-no-fin’ as the base case, three configurationssuch as overhang without fin, fin without overhang, and with overhang, were studied to assess the energyconsumption. The simulations of all the tested alternatives were performed by eQUEST software program. Theobservations reveal that the overhangs and fins, and their proper positioning and orientation have significant impacton the building’s energy performance. With respect to the baseline, a saving of up to 13.62 % in the annual electricenergy consumption and 12.5 % in total energy cost (electricity + fuel) have been predicted by the use of overhangswith fins on south, west and east facades.