Dynamic Shading

You could send an email to Christopher Nielson, cnielson@brunercott.com he worked on the Kern Center in Western MA. It's a certified living building and the exterior operable shading is linked to a weather station. The building director is Sara Draper, sdraper@hampshire.edu she could tell you more about maintenance and functionality.    

Jonathan, we have done several projects with exterior dynamic blinds (and some with interior dynamic blinds). If you contact me directly I can provide some experience with these systems and then maybe you could report back to the group on your overall findings. I’ve got some other avenues for your research as well. Jim jhanford@millerhull.com Jim Hanford, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Principal The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP F

Would love to hear what the outcome of this exterior dynamic blinds conversation was...has anyone used them in a horizontal application?   

Reviving an old thread here. Are there any updated thoughts on preferred devices or manufacturers for dynamic external shading systems? Wondering also in the context of PV-integrated shading systems and EC glazing... Jonathan, is that course posted online somewhere? 

Interesting tech, maybe ready for prime time in a few years? Self-contained self-powered smart window tint. "Matthew Marquardt ’21 explains how his senior thesis regarding the installation of smart windows can be applied on campus, and in broader communities. Smart Windows can become dimmer or lighter on demand, which helps buildings reduce power consumption to heat or cool their climate." https://youtu.be/fa4j1NDHhNY

Our company just utilized Sage glass on a local large commercial office building. Below I have linked a report we developed that includes some results based on detailed post occupancy evaluations.  Overall, we were gifted with an owner that was really sold on trying out this technology. The majority of the building if fully glazed so minimizing glare and HVAC loads were the goal with the open office floor plan. The preliminary analysis aligned pretty well with the final results and confirmed in the post occupancy study. A couple benefits include: substantially reduced glare, better HVAC control, reduced load and equipment sizing. Along with the benefits a few concerns taken away include: having to get accustom to the dimming process (from an aesthetic point of view), some didn't like the color of the glass when fully tinted, what does maintenance look like over 15 to 20 years, can feel overly dark in the space. All in all, while being a hefty price increase, use of EC glazing can prove valuable when designed correctly.   https://leoadaly.com/perspectives/electrochromic-glazing-daylight-analysis/ Below is also a little web presentation our team created: https://spark.adobe.com/page/39Z36fAHFJcRQ/

And now for something completely different, thermal bimetal shading devices. One of my college classmates, Doris Kim Sung, has developed shading devices that "kinetically react to temperature change" without automation, energy, or people interaction. It's not for every building, but makes a "cool" addition to the design toolbox. Here's a recent article about her work: https://frameweb.com/article/will-smart-materials-prove-to-be-more-valuable-to-design-than-technology

We have a large project right now that is utilizing Electrochromic Glazing. I have very mixed feelings about it, and how the glazing performs seems to depend a lot on the manufacturer. We've looked at the three manufacturers available to our project, Halio, View, and Sage. The benefit of reducing solar heat gain on our project seems somewhat minimal from an energy savings perspective -- we can size down equipment and reduce peak loads but I'm not sure the annual savings are very significant. Our window-wall-ratio isn't that high on most facades. The embodied carbon in electrochromic glazing appears to be almost an order of magnitude greater than for a standard IGU, although I'm still trying to review that data. The glare reduction is great, but some of the products can end up in a fairly constant state of an extremely low VLT, depending on how they are programmed and how quickly they respond to their sensor readings. At that point, there is no glare, but I'm not sure there is much daylight, either. One of the manufacturers has a study where they essentially compared their product to a cave-like room with dark shades pulled all day and surprise(!) people felt better with their product. However, the newer technology keeps the highest VLT possible while minimizing glare, so hopefully it will keep going that way. My general feeling so far is that it could be a good solution but careful design and product selection is necessary...so, it's basically just like everything else.

Lisa, thanks for posting this article!  I so enjoyed it. An excellent read on analytical thinking, besides her actual technical products:  "The more I tried to figure out how architecture could be sustainable, the more frustrated I got. The industry wasn’t playing the game yet", and ..."Architecture is often too static. Even though our environment is constantly changing...our buildings remain exactly the same."  Great food for thought here. I recommend this story to all.  Thanks Lisa.

So great to hear so many good stories on electrochromic glazing. I will rethink or consider this again given the pluses being shared. However… In the past, we used it on a few projects (skylights, and replacement windows in a retrofit) and did a scrappy install in our office. Two main items were of concern: Reflectivity of from the glass (it felt like I was looking into a mirror when the glass turned dark grey/blue) The glass in clear mode was yellow (and the glass in dark mode was really dark dark blue) Great analysis from our daylighting consultant on other jobs led us to know suggest it for program spaces where color mattered (art classrooms) and where the reflection would be distracting (classrooms, actually all occupied spaces) Sorry for the list of cons. Would love to know if others have seen a transformation of the glass over the last 5 years. F

Sorry, correction below Great analysis from our daylighting consultant on other jobs led us to know NOT suggest it for program spaces where color mattered (art classrooms) and where the reflection would be distracting (classrooms, actually all occupied spaces)

Hi folks, In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, BG's Brent Ehrlich has now done a deep dive into this topic, interviewing several of you and some top notch lighting designers. I think that he's unpacked a lot of the issues in a way that might help you explain to your clients where electrochromic glazing might--or might not--make sense. It would be great to hear if this report—Is Using Smart Glass Smart?—helps answer the questions you're getting. And--bonus!--it comes with a GBCI and AIA HSW CEU! Nadav