A Review of Electrochromic Windows for Residential Applications

Abstract

Electrochromic windows can play an important role for energy saving as well as for controlling the visual and thermal conditions inside a room. This paper starts with a critical review and the state-of-art regarding the products today commercially available as well as the studies conducted on full scale electrochromic windows. The analysis allows to define the main parameters characterizing the electrochromic windows with particular regard to their optical, thermal and electrical characteristics, while assuming that the physical quantities, generally used to evaluate the behaviour of standard glasses, are not sufficient to evaluate the performances of the smart windows. In addition the experimental studies conducted on full scale electrochromic windows are analysed highlighting the measured physical quantities and the applied measurement methodologies considering both field and laboratory tests. Taking into account the need to accurately predict the operating characteristics and optimum design of electrochromic windows, a review of the theoretical studies available in the scientific literature as well as the developed theoretical models are presented. Finally, an experimental station for evaluating the on-site performances of different types of full scale smart windows and the layout of sensors used for the acquisition of internal and external physical quantities was described.

A study of the effect of tungstate ions on the electrochromic properties of Ni(OH)2 films

“…The application range of such windows is wide. Patient examination rooms, business meeting rooms, glassing of cars, planes, modern buildings, displays for currency, prices, temperature -is a far from complete list of applications for such devices [4,5].…”

Smart Electrochromic Windows to Enhance Building Energy Efficiency and Visual Comfort

“…A complete review of existing and commercially available EC glazing was presented by Sibilio et al [44], in 2016. They reported that EC layers are typically coupled with double or triple glazing, including a low-E coated glass pane, to maximize thermal performance.…”

“…EC devices can allow an energy savings of up to 59% [44], but the actual benefits are often unrelated to the technology itself. Orientation, climatic conditions, latitude location and control strategy dramatically affect the performance of a smart window.…”

Development of an Electric-Driven Smart Window Model for Visual Comfort Assessment

“…In order to allow for experimental studies to assess the in-situ visual performances of fullscale smart windows, an experimental station was designed and set-up at the Department of Engineering of the University of Sannio (Ascione et al, 2016;Sibilio et al, 2016). The station consists of a steel structure placed on a turntable, with external size of 6.00 m x 6.00 m and height of 5.50 m. The facility is equipped with a double-hang wood frame window with a total size of 2.000 m x 1.200 m, a ratio between glass area and total window area equal to 0.59; each hang has a glazing with size of 0.785 m x 0.900 m. In this paper, the first results of the in-situ visual characterization of the two full-scale double ED glazings, manufactured by Gesimat (GESIMAT), were presented.…”