Energy Consumption, Window Size, and Environment-Friendly Building Design: Analysis Using Scale Model Houses

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of window size on energy consumption in residential buildings and discusses how a proper design may help promote environmental sustainability. People have different preferences when it comes to the size of windows in their houses because larger windows allow more natural light inside and vice-versa. The amount of natural light may help reduce the lighting costs; however, the presence of larger windows may impact the overall energy costs in that building. To explore these issues, multiple scale model houses were built that replicate standard residential homes. Various temperature data were collected on the scale model houses by placing solid-state temperature circuits and Data Acquisition recorders in each house to record temperature variations over time. The collected data were analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey-Kramer tests. The results showed that there was indeed a significant difference in temperatures between the houses of different window sizes and that the temperature between the model houses vary during the day-time and the night-time. These findings have strong implications on instituting policies related to energy consumption with environment-friendly building designs while promoting sustainable development across the globe.