International Journal of Construction Management

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Impact assessment of window to wall ratio on

energy consumption of an office building of
subtropical monsoon climatic country Bangladesh

Md. Jewel Rana , Md. Rakibul Hasan , Md. Habibur Rahman Sobuz & Vivian
W. Y. Tam

To cite this article: Md. Jewel Rana , Md. Rakibul Hasan , Md. Habibur Rahman Sobuz & Vivian
W. Y. Tam (2020): Impact assessment of window to wall ratio on energy consumption of an office
building of subtropical monsoon climatic country Bangladesh, International Journal of Construction
Management, DOI: 10.1080/15623599.2020.1808561

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1808561

Published online: 24 Aug 2020.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1808561

Impact assessment of window to wall ratio on energy consumption of an office

building of subtropical monsoon climatic country Bangladesh
Md. Jewel Ranaa, Md. Rakibul Hasana, Md. Habibur Rahman Sobuza,b and Vivian W. Y. Tamc
a
Department of Building Engineering and Construction Management, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna, Bangladesh;
b
School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia; cSchool of Built
Environment, Western Sydney University, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Building’s window-to-wall ratio (WWR) plays a significant role for predicting energy consumption in trop- Window-to-wall ratio;
ical climate because huge amount of solar heat gain occurs through the exterior windows for having energy efficiency; eQUEST;
high solar radiation intensity and annual average temperature in tropical climatic regions. This study solar heat gain; window
orientation
investigates the impact of WWR on energy consumption of air-conditioned office buildings in subtropical
monsoon climatic country Bangladesh. This research was conducted through rigorous energy simulation
perspective by developing a two storey prototype office building in a validated energy simulation tool
eQUEST. Around 216 design alternatives were developed for simulation considering eight major cities of
Bangladesh, WWR percentage from 10% to 80%, wall thickness, thermal insulation thickness, shading
height and window orientations. A comprehensive data analysis was performed to predict the optimum
range of WWR percentage for the air-conditioned office buildings. This research suggests a range of WWR
that 30% to 40% is the optimum range for the air-conditioned office buildings in Bangladesh. An existing
office building was able to save about 9.40% percent of electricity by incorporating optimum percentage
of WWR. The output of this work can be incorporated into Bangladesh National Building Code as energy
efficient strategies for designing an air-conditioned office building.

Introduction
Excessive amount of energy consumption confronts the world to
great dangers such as CO2 emissions, global warming and cli-
mate change which can ultimately make the earth inhabitable
(Cooper 2000). According to a study of Perez-Lombard et al.
(2008), energy consumption by buildings fluctuate from 20% to
40% in developing countries and 40% of total energy is con-
sumed by buildings in developed countries. To keep pace with
the development, developing countries are also taking some ini-
tiatives which increase the energy consumption largely. In
Bangladesh, in the year of 1990, total amount of energy con-
sumption was around 40 quadrillion Btu which is expected to
rise up to 230 quadrillion Btu in the year of 2030 (Hossain
2012). Energy efficient building design is one of the best rem-
edies to stop climate change and excessive carbon di-oxide emis-
sions. Energy efficient building design strategies can save 34% of
energy consumption globally within 2020 (Expert Group on
Energy Efficiency 2007). Many countries are conducting research
work for discovering energy efficient design strategies consider-
ing their unique climatic contexts to reduce energy consumption
in building sector. In Europe, new technical standards are being
introduced for the sake of energy efficient building by reshaping
building design strategies (Peri and Rizzo 2012). There is a new
international trend of Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB)
across the world. According to EU directive, all new buildings
will be ‘nearly zero energy buildings’ by the end of the year 2020
(Kolokotsa et al. 2011). LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) certified building plays significant roles
for reducing energy consumption. Even after having all of these
different organizations, designers of Bangladesh should take their
own initiatives to optimize the energy consumption by designing
an energy efficient building considering their unique subtrop-
ical climate.
According to ASHRAE 55, comfortable room temperature for
any built environment to ensure thermal comfort should remain
between 20
C to 24
C ± 2
C with a relative humidity less than
60%. A building consumes huge amount of energy to keep the
interior space within comforting temperature and relative
humidity (Rahman 2014). Building envelope influences the
energy consumption significantly by separating conditioned
indoor space from vulnerable outdoor environment. It includes
windows, exterior walls and roofs which influence the heat gain
and heat loss process (Marino et al. 2012). WWR is one of the
most important part of building envelope that influences the
energy efficiency of a building largely. The solar heat transmits
through windows from renewable energy source such as sun
which reduce heating load of building during winter season.
Simultaneously, windows are considered as one of the main cata-
lyst of internal heat loss as it has low thermal insulating value
(Hesaraki 2017). On the other hand, windows are responsible for
solar heat gain from exterior environment during summer season
which increases the energy consumption of air conditioning sys-
tem for cooling. If window size increases, the percentage of
WWR and cooling load will increase in summer season domi-
nated region. Gelesz and Reith (2015) conducted a study where
fully glazed facade resulted in consumption of 45% of the build-
ing’s cooling load. In case of WWR, Pathirana et al. (2019) stated

CONTACT Md. Jewel Rana jewelrana@becm.kuet.ac.bd

ß 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 1. Typical solar heat gain process through exterior facade of a building.
that solar heat gain was increased from 20% to 50% for the
increment of the percentage of WWR. Bangladesh is located in
low latitude tropical region where high temperature prevails
almost over the year. Significant amount of solar heat gain
occurs through building windows in Bangladesh. An optimum
amount of WWR can reduce solar heat gain from exterior envir-
onment. Optimum WWR varies with respect to different climatic
contexts. A study was conducted on educational building in
Saudi Arabia by Alwetaishi and Balabel (2017) to find out opti-
mum WWR and the research was accomplished considering a
range of climatic circumstances which suggested 10% of WWR
for hot and humid climate. According to Goia (2016), the opti-
mum WWR fluctuates between 30% and 45% in the contexts of
versatile European climates. Considering Italian context, Marino
et al. (2017) conclude that 32% of WWR is optimum for trans-
parent components of the building envelope having low thermal
transmittance of 1.870 W/m2K. Another investigation of Wang
et al. (2007) suggests that optimum WWR is 24% in the context
of Singapore. Lee, Jung, et al. (2013) shows that window size
must be minimized in each directions except north side and the
optimum WWR percentage is 25% in the climatic context of
Asia. Feng et al. (2017) found out different percentage WWR for
various orientations in severe cold region of Shenyang city. Feng
et al. (2017) revealed that the energy efficient WWR percentages
were 10% and 15% in the east and 10% and 22.5% in the south
side of building. Sedigh Ziabari et al. (2019) proved that the
highest amount of energy consumption occurred due to increas-
ing WWR greater than 20% in west direction. However, in case
of ventilation, 25% of WWR provide the best performance in the
northern face. In the southern face, 30% of WWR is suggested
alongside 20% to the east zone of the building. In the context of
Pakistan, Masood et al. (2014) discovered that increment of
WWR greater than 20% in all orientations of the building influ-
ences the heat gain and heat loss process significantly. Ahsan
(2009) conducted a research work considering various building
design characteristics such as 125 mm of wall thickness, 5 mm of
window glass thickness with restricted to 50% opening in the
context of Bangladesh. Ahsan (2009) showed that large window
area contributes to huge amount of electricity consumption.
From above literature, it is obvious that optimum percentage
of WWR varies with respect to climatic context of different loca-
tions of buildings. There are no common rules or considerations
to fix an appropriate WWR for all locations. Design element of
WWR evolves along with solar radiation intensity which also
changes with respect to global position and sun path of any
regions (Tong et al. 2019). Regional building codes are compre-
hensively important for optimizing energy consumption. This
research was conducted in the contexts of Bangladeshi climate
because Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), a bible for
the construction of Bangladeshi buildings, does not have any
specific codes or policies for designing an important element of
building such as WWR for enhancing energy efficiency and sus-
tainability. Due to lack of specific regulations about appropriate
WWR design, the designers of Bangladesh set WWR percentage
as their own choices. Though WWR design of a commercial
building considering own choices of an architect or a designer
may improve the building aesthetically, the cooling load of the
office building will be huge for not applying appropriate percent-
age of WWR. The huge cooling load enforces the building owner
to install large air-conditioning system. Ultimately, annual elec-
tricity consumption will become an excessive amount that can be
optimized through proper designing of WWR. Considering
above reasons, setting an appropriate percentage of WWR is fun-
damental requirement of BNBC for reducing the energy con-
sumption of an office building significantly. This research selects
the locations for the study which are located in tropical region.
The main problem of tropical climate is warmness and huge
internal solar heat gain occurs through windows. By investigating
the impact of WWR on energy consumption of various regions
of Bangladesh, this study has discovered the optimum range of
WWR for air-conditioned office buildings of Bangladesh which
was not suggested by BNBC previously. Moreover, this study
also develops a regression model using building passive design
parameters such as window shading height, wall thickness and
thermal insulation thickness to predict optimum WWR percent-
age for any air-conditioned office building in subtropical climatic
regions by keeping the cooling load within a minimum constant
amount and maximizing the lighting load reduction. The main
novelty of this research is to find out optimum WWR and
develop regression model to predict WWR for Bangladeshi air-
conditioned office buildings considering its unique climatic con-
texts. The output of this research can be an effective policy of
BNBC to make an office building energy efficient and sustain-
able. It will also be useful to designers of Bangladesh as well as
other countries with similar climatic context.
Methodology
Weather conditions of Bangladesh
This research was conducted in the contexts of Bangladeshi cli-
mate which is located in tropical region in Southeast Asia.
Thermal comfort is dominated by warmness and humidity in
tropical climate. Annual average temperature of tropical climate
always remains greater than 20
C (Koenigsberger 1975). For
ensuring thermal comfort in tropical climate, Buildings require
air conditioning system only for cooling (Koenigsberger 1975).
Heating system is not required for most of the regions in trop-
ical climate. Moreover, Geographic position of Bangladesh is in
subtropical monsoon climate which is distinguished by wide sea-
sonal variations in rainfall, high temperature and humidity.
There are three unique seasons in Bangladesh: a hot and humid
summer from March to June, a cool and rainy monsoon season
from June to October and a cool and dry winter from October
to March. Generally temperatures in summer vary from 30
C to
40
C. April is the warmest month in most parts of the country.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 3

Figure 2. Framework of this study.

The coldest month is January and the average temperature of year. Maximum office buildings in Bangladesh have installed air
this month remains about 10
C throughout the country. conditioning system only for cooling. WWR can only influence
Bangladeshi weather stays hot and humid most of the time in a cooling and lighting load for any Bangladeshi buildings.
4 M. J. RANA ET AL.

Table 1. Weather data of different regions of Bangladesh.

Annual average radiation Annual average radiation
intensity on horizontal intensity on vertical Annual average dry bulb Annual average wet
Location names Global position of cities plane (W/m2) plane (W/m2) temperature (
C) bulb temperature (
C)
Bogra 24.84
N, 89.37
E 200 152 25.25 22.26
Chittagong (patenga) 22.23
N, 91.79
E 205 161 26.00 23.00
Cox’s Bazar 21.43
N, 92.00
E 207 167 26.03 23.1
Dhaka 23.81
N, 90.41
E 200 147 25.78 22.22
Ishurdi 24.12
N, 89.06
E 198 150 25.00 21.83
Jessore 23.17
N, 89.18
E 201 143 25.83 22.60
Rangpur 25.74
N, 89.27
E 188 140 24.40 21.90
Sylhet 24.89
N, 91.86
E 181 128 24.50 21.80

Research framework and boundary conditions for energy
simulations
The general heat gain process of a building through opaque wall
and transparent windows from exterior environment is repre-
sented in Figure 1. Basically, the opaque wall transfers heat only
through conduction process. On the other hand, transparent
windows transfer heat to the indoor environment through con-
duction and radiation process. The assumed heat transfer formu-
las in this study through opaque wall and transparent windows
are represented in Equations (1) and (2).
 
Conduction
Qwall ¼ Awall :Uwall :ðTo  Ti Þ (1)
through wall
 
Conduction þ Radiation
Qwin ¼ Awin :Uwin :ðTo  Ti Þ þ Awin :SHGC:IT
through windows
Qwall , the amount of heat transfer through wall ðJÞ,
Awall , the amount of wall area ðm2 Þ,

tions are represented in Table 2. The prototype building was simu-
Uwall , heat transfer co-efficient of wall mW2 :K ,
Qwin , the amount of heat transfer through window area ðJÞ,
Awin , the amount of window glazing area ðm2 Þ,
Uwin , heat transfer co-efficient of window glaz-

such as 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% and 80%. The values
ing materials mW2 :K ,
To , exterior temperature ðKÞ,
Ti , interior temperature ðKÞ,
SHGC, Solar heat gain coefficient
of window glazing,
IT , solar radiation intensity mW2 ,
It is obvious from Figure 1, Equations (1) and (2) that the
transparent windows transfer more heat to the indoor environ-
ment than opaque wall. Increment of window size will amplify
the internal solar heat gain. Window glazing area also increases
with the increment of window size. WWR is the ratio of total
window glazing area and total façade area which includes opaque
wall and window surface area.
Total window glazing area
WWR ¼
Total exterior facade area ðincluding wall and windowÞ
Window glazing area or window size acts as numerator for cal-
culating WWR in Equation (3). WWR has a proportional relation-
ship with window size. For enhancing the WWR percentage, it is
required to increase the window size also. So, increment of WWR
percentage ultimately causes large glazing area and huge cooling
load due to passing a significant amount of solar heat gain through
large transparent windows. Though reducing WWR percentage to
a very small amount decrease the cooling load significantly, small
WWR will cause visual discomfort for building occupants. This
study has discovered the optimum percentage of WWR which can
optimize cooling load and enhance the daylight performances. The
whole research framework representing in Figure 2 that was
divided into two major parts such as finding out optimum WWR
and application of optimum WWR into a real office building. For
investigation purpose, this study divided Bangladesh into eight dif-
ferent climatic zones such as Bogra, Chittagong (patenga), Cox’s
Bazar, Dhaka, Ishurdi, Jessore, Rangpur and Sylhet. The informa-
tion of solar radiation intensity on horizontal plane, solar radiation
intensity on vertical plane, dry-bulb temperature, wet-bulb tem-
perature, latitudes and longitudes of different regions were col-
lected from Bangladesh meteorological department representing in
Table 1 (Meteorological Department 2019). A prototype office
building was developed using eQUEST to assess the impact of
WWR on energy consumption in different regions. After develop-
ing the prototype energy model, energy simulation of that proto-
type office energy model was done by eQUEST. Figure 3
represents the zoning pattern of the prototype building and Figure
4 displays the 3D energy model developed in eQUEST. The
(2) assumed occupant number, occupancy schedule, lighting schedule,
office equipment schedule, sensible heat gain, latent heat gain and
other analytical properties of each zone required for energy simula-
lated for various WWR percentages and regions to discover the
impact of WWR on energy consumption within various regions.
The WWR percentages were categorized as eight different values
of WWR percentages were calculated by considering floor to ceil-
ing height. Different sizes of window with respect to various
WWR percentages and wall face length of office room are pre-
sented in Table 3. Windows were installed at the center of exterior
wall because center positioned apertures can transmit more day-
light into built environment (Elghamry and Hassan 2020).
Considering above all criterion, about 216 combinations were
developed for energy simulation by eQUEST. A comprehensive
data analysis of the simulation results was performed to predict
the effect of WWR on energy consumptions and the impact of
shading height, wall thickness, thermal insulation thickness and
window orientations on WWR sizing. Finally, this study validates
the simulation results through a case study application of a real
existing office building in Bangladesh.
X 100%
(3)
Energy simulation tool: eQUEST
A several number of state-of-art commercial energy simulation
programs are available in the market such as eQUEST, ESP-r,
EnergyPlus, IES-VE, Ecotect, Green Building Studio, Autodesk
Insight 360, DAYSIM and TRNSYS. Any simulation program
can be utilized to predict energy consumption in the design
phase of any building. The system of inputting simulation
parameters and output of simulation results may vary among the
simulation programs. The basic input parameters for building
energy simulations such as occupant number, occupancy sched-
ule, lighting schedule, office equipment schedule, sensible
heat gain, latent heat gain and weather data are required for all

Figure 3. Floor plan of the prototype building.
simulation programs. The output of the simulation results are
revealed in the form of annual energy use (kWh) or annual
energy use intensity (EUI) (kWh/m2/year). For example,
EnergyPlus and Autodesk Insight 360 represent energy simula-
tion result in the form of EUI. On the other hand, eQUEST rep-
resents simulation result on the basis of annual or monthly
energy consumption (kWh). This study selected eQUEST as
main simulation tool for energy simulation. eQUEST is an user
friendly building energy consumption analysis tool which can
generate accurate simulation results by integrating a building cre-
ation wizard, an energy efficiency measure (EEM) wizard and a
graphical results display module (Crawley et al. 2008). It uses
DOE-2.2 simulation engine for energy simulation likewise
Ecotect, Green Building Studio and Autodesk Insight 360. One
the other hand, EnergyPlus executes energy simulation using
BLAST and DOE-2.1E simulation engine. eQUEST performs
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 5
energy simulation considering hourly basis climate data, proper-
ties of walls, windows, glass, people, plug loads, and ventilation.
Weather files requiring for energy simulation contain 8760 hours
(365 days) data of various weather parameters such as dry bulb
temperature, wet bulb temperature and solar radiation intensity
on vertical and horizontal plane. Firstly, eQUEST calculates
energy consumption for each hour considering the hourly basis
weather data using simulation algorithm of DOE-2.2. Finally, it
sums up 8760 hours consumption data and represents as
monthly and yearly basis. EnergyPlus and other simulation pro-
grams use annually, monthly, hourly and sub-hourly
(15 minutes) weather data for energy simulation. eQUEST also
calculates the performance of boilers, pumps, chillers, fans and
other devices. It also provides estimation of energy cost, day-
lighting control and implementation of energy efficiency parame-
ters automatically.
6 M. J. RANA ET AL.

Figure 4. Prototype energy model developed in eQUEST.

Table 2. Design assumptions for energy simulation.

Building Characteristics Description
HVAC system Residential 17 SEER split unit
Thermostat set point For Cooling ¼ 24
C
Supply Cooled air ¼ 15.55
C
Condition type Only cooling
Infiltration 0.036 cfm/square foot through exterior wall
0.010 cfm/square foot through exterior roof
Thermal conductivity of brick wall 0.4167 Btu/h-ft-
F
Thermal conductivity of concrete roof 1.014 Btu/h-ft-
F
U-value of window Glasses 1.11 W/m2K
Solar heat gain coefficient of window glasses 0.86
Lighting control Switch on/off
Shading device No shading
Occupancy schedule 9 AM to 5 PM (5 days per week)
Lighting Intensity 1.50 Watt/square foot
Office equipment loads intensity 2.0 Watt/square foot for common office activity area
0.5 Watt/square foot for miscellaneous area
Sensible heat gain 60 Watt (205 BTU/h) per person
Latent heat gain 50 Watt (170 BTU/h) per person

Table 3. Window sizes for various zones and WWR percentages.

Floor to Gross exterior facade
ceiling height area per zone (square foot) Percentage of glazing Window sizes
0
When the length of exterior 9 feet 90 10% 3:00  3:000
face of zone is 10 feet 20% 4:240  4:240
30% 5:190  5:190
40% 6:000  6:000
50% 6:710  6:710
60% 7:350  7:350
70% 7:930  7:930
80% 8:480  8:480
When the length of exterior face 108 10% 3:280  3:280
of zone is 12 feet 20% 4:650  4:650
30% 5:690  5:690
40% 6:570  6:570
50% 7:340  7:340
60% 8:050  8:050
70% 8:690  8:690
80% 10:160  8:500

Figure 5. Analysis of the impact of various WWR percentages on energy consumption considering climatic context of eight major cities of Bangladesh.
Results and discussions
Impact of WWR on energy consumption for various regions
of Bangladesh
In order to find out optimum WWR percentage for air-condi-
tioned office buildings of Bangladesh, it is necessary to investi-
gate the impact of various WWR percentages on energy
consumption of any air-conditioned office building. This
research investigates the WWR with respect to cooling, lighting
and annual total energy load for all major cities of Bangladesh to
observe the nature of energy consumption behavior for various
WWR percentages and sort out possible optimum range of
WWR percentage for all regions of Bangladesh. Further
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 7
investigations of the impact of various WWR percentages on
energy consumption are displayed in Figure 5 and Table 4 con-
sidering climatic context of eight major cities of Bangladesh. The
cooling, lighting and annual total energy consumption of the
prototype building for various regions of the country with
respect to different percentages of WWR are represented in
Figure 5(a), (b) and (c), respectively. The cooling energy con-
sumption increases with the increment of the percentage of
WWR representing in Figure 5(a). In a study of Chile by Pino
et al. (2012) confirmed that 100% WWR will cause 155 kWh/m2/
year heating and cooling load demand, while the demand can be
reduced to 25 kWh/m2/year for 20% WWR. On the other hand,
in Figure 5(b), lighting load decreases with the increment of
8 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 5. Continued.
WWR. Ultimately, overall energy consumption increases with
the increment of percentage of WWR representing in Figure
5(c). Normally heating and cooling load increases and lighting
load decreases with the increment of WWR. Finally, the total
energy consumption will be minimum at a certain percentage of
WWR after summing up the increasing and decreasing load of
heating, cooling and lighting (Marino et al. 2017). But in this
study, there arose some differences from normal energy con-
sumption scenarios for different WWR percentages. There was
no minimum total energy consumption at certain percentage of
WWR. On the other hand, total energy consumption is increas-
ing continuously with the increment of WWR percentage
because increment of cooling consumption always remains
greater than reduction in lighting consumption for the same per-
centage of increment of WWR.
A regression analysis of simulation results was performed to
compare the energy consumption intensity among different
regions of Bangladesh. Annual cooling, lighting and total energy
consumptions were considered as independent variable and
WWR percentages were considered as dependent variable. The
regression coefficients or rate of increment of energy consump-
tion for various regions of Bangladesh, shading height, wall
thickness, thermal insulation thickness and window orientations
are displayed in Table 4 with respect to increment of WWR per-
centage. Cox’s Bazar region shows larger regression coefficients
than other regions of Bangladesh in Figure 5(d) and Table 4.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 9

Table 4. Regression coefficients of energy consumption with respect to various criteria for increasing WWR from 10% to 80%.
Regression coefficients for energy consumption with respect to different criteria
Criteria WWR Annual cooling Annual lighting Annual total
Overhangs height No Shading 299.24 61.44 323.69
1
=4 of window height 250.25 63.54 259.60
1
=3 of window height 237.56 64.20 243.04
1
=2 of window height 217.83 64.55 218.63
Fins height No Shading 229.00 59.11 229.20
1
=4 of window height 180.55 59.32 171.56
1
=3 of window height 168.23 61.98 153.48
1
=2 of window height 159.94 64.94 141.26
Thermal insulation 1.50 inch 296.75 62.33 316.61
2.50 inch 300.43 62.33 320.76
3.50 inch 302.25 62.33 323.07
4.50 inch 303.40 62.33 324.31
Wall thickness 5 inch 228.78 60.27 213.73
7.5 inch 198.11 60.27 179.43
10 inch 167.43 60.27 145.12
Window orientations North 28.95 22.98 11.14
South 95.67 26.48 93.30
East 72.83 2.36 84.89
West 73.14 22.34 63.75
Regions of Bangladesh Bogra 201.28 66.45 181.52
Chittagong (patenga) 204.46 66.40 183.54
Cox’s Bazar 227.59 66.06 213.73
Dhaka 206.66 65.45 187.88
Ishurdi 202.22 66.45 181.65
Jessore 216.98 64.97 198.01
Rangpur 186.53 66.69 165.64
Sylhet 181.78 66.64 157.54

Rangpur and Sylhet show the smallest value of regression coeffi-
cient of cooling and total energy consumption. The global pos-
ition is the root cause of energy consumption load differences
among the selected regions of this study. It is evident from Table
1 that solar radiation intensity, dry-bulb and wet-bulb tempera-
ture decreases with the increment of latitudes and longitudes
value of any region. If a particular region has large latitude and
longitude value, it will have far distance from equator. When a
region has highest distance from equator, it receives the lowest
solar radiation intensity, dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperature. The
global positions of Cox’s Bazar and Rangpur are 21.43
N,
92.00
E and 25.74
N, 89.27
E respectively representing in
Table 1. Cox’s Bazar position is nearer to Equator than other
regions in this study and it shows the highest solar radiation
rate, dry bulb and wet bulb temperature. It shows the highest
energy consumption rate because highest solar radiation rate, dry
bulb and wet bulb temperature are responsible for maximum
annual cooling and total energy consumption. Rangpur is located
farer distance from equator than other regions in this study and
it shows the lowest solar radiation intensity, dry-bulb and wet-
bulb temperature. It is obvious that cooling and total energy
consumption of Rangpur and Sylhet region are smaller than
other regions of Bangladesh. Though cooling load amplifies with
WWR, lighting load reduction potentiality remains approxi-
mately constant with increasing WWR for all regions
of Bangladesh.
Impact of window shading height (horizontal and vertical)
on WWR sizing
The major passive technologies such as window shading height,
thermal insulation, wall thickness and orientation influence the
size WWR percentage because they have potentiality to control
the cooling, lighting and annual total energy consumption like-
wise WWR percentages. The impact of above stated passive tech-
nologies on WWR sizing was investigated considering one of the
harsh climatic context of Cox’s Bazar. First of all, this study
investigated the impact of horizontal and vertical shading devices
on WWR sizing. Generally the horizontal and vertical shading
devices are known as overhangs and fins respectively. The proto-
type building was simulated considering various overhangs and
fins height for WWR 10% to 80%. The overhangs and fins height
were measured considering window height (WH). Four types of
shading height are equal to no shading height, 1=4 of WH, 1/3 of
WH and 1=2 of WH which were considered for analysis. When
the overhangs height is considered as no shading height, the
cooling load is 25,093 kWh for 30% WWR. Again, when the
overhangs height is considered as 1=2 of window height, the cool-
ing load is 21829 kWh for 30% WWR. The cooling load can be
reduced around 3264 kWh by applying shading height equal to
1=2 of window height at 30% WWR. Moreover, 3270 kWh electri-
city consumption will be increased for the increment of WWR
percentage from 30% to 40% considering no overhang height.
So, if we combine 40% WWR and overhang height equal to 1=2
of window height, what will happen? The increment of cooling
load for amplifying WWR percentage from 30% to 40% and dec-
rement of cooling load for installing shading height equal to 1=2
of window height balance themselves and a new alternative will
arise like 40% of WWR with overhangs height equal to 1=2 of
window height keeping the cooling load constant likewise for
30% WWR with no shading height alternative. The new alterna-
tive does not bring extra cooling load for increasing WWR from
30% to 40%. Besides, application of shading height equal to 1=2 of
window height paves a way to increase WWR from 30% to 40%
without increasing the cooling load and energy consumption.
This is how the window overhangs and fins height influence the
WWR percentage sizing. The impact of horizontal and vertical
shading devices height on WWR sizing was further investigated
and analyzed in Figures 6 and 7 and Table 4. It is represented in
Figure 6(a,c) that annual cooling and total energy consumption
is increasing with the increment of WWR percentage. The no
shading height type shows larger increment of energy
10 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 6. Analysis of the impact of horizontal shading device (overhangs) height on WWR sizing.
consumption than other shading height types. When no shading
height is added with clear glazing window that causes more con-
sumption of cooling energy than other shading height types at
the same percentage of WWR. Similar kind of above phenomena
happens in terms vertical shading (fins) height representing in
Figure 7(a,c). The prototype building with no shading height
paves a way to enter lot of direct intense solar radiations into
indoor environment. The large shading height lowers the direct
solar radiation transmission into indoor environment and also
reduces energy consumptions. A regression analysis was
performed considering shading height, WWR percentage and
energy consumption to make this above statement more clear.
The dependent variable was energy consumption and independ-
ent variable was WWR percentage. This study analyzed the
amount of energy consumption with increasing WWR percent-
age from 10% to 80% for a specific shading height type. The
regression coefficient acted as rate of energy consumption incre-
ment for a specific shading height with the increment of WWR
percentages. The regression coefficient or rate of energy con-
sumption increment of horizontal (overhangs) and vertical (fins)

Figure 6. Continued.
shading device for four types of shading height with increasing
WWR percentage from 10% to 80% is represented in Table 4,
Figures 6(d) and 7(d). It is further clear from Table 4, Figures
6(d) and 7(d) that the large shading height has more capability to
reduce the energy consumption increment rate than small shad-
ing height. The large shading height decreases the energy con-
sumption rate and at the same time makes a possibility to
increase the WWR percentage by compensating or substituting
the decreasing amount energy consumption. Increment of the
shading height makes a way to enlarge the WWR percentage
without creating additional cooling load to the prototype build-
ing. Moreover, Figures 6(b) and 7(b) and Table 4 illustrate that
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 11
horizontal and vertical shading devices do not influence much in
lighting consumptions. The lighting consumption was slightly dif-
fered for varying the window shading height. Though shading
device obstructs the direct intense solar radiation transmission
into built environment, dispersed day light enters into the indoor
environment due to diffraction nature of light. In comparison
between horizontal and vertical shading device, the vertical shad-
ing device (fins) represents better result than horizontal shading
device (overhangs) for reducing annual cooling and total energy
consumption. The vertical shading device (fins) has smaller
regression coefficient or increment rate of cooling load value than
horizontal shading device (overhangs) representing in Table 4.
12 M. J. RANA ET AL.

Figure 7. Analysis of the impact of vertical shading device height (fins) on WWR sizing.

Impact of wall thickness and thermal insulation thickness on
WWR sizing
Wall thickness is another major passive technology which influ-
ences building cooling load as well as WWR sizing. Three types
of facade patterns were developed such as 5, 7.5 and 10 inch
thickness brick wall with clear glazing windows to investigate the
impact of wall thickness on WWR sizing. This study simulated
the prototype building considering various wall thicknesses for
WWR 10% to 80%. The cooling load can be reduced around
3312 kWh by increasing wall thickness from 5 to 10 inch at 20%
WWR. On the other hand, 3032 kWh electricity consumption
will be increased for the increment of WWR percentage from
20% to 40% considering 5 inch wall thickness. If we apply 40%
WWR and 10 inch wall thickness simultaneously, the increment
of cooling load for amplifying WWR percentage from 20% to
40% and decrement of cooling load for increasing wall thick-
ness from 5 to 10 inch will almost balance themselves.

Figure 7. Continued.
Moreover, a new alternative will arise such as 40% of WWR
with 10 inch wall thickness keeping the cooling load constant
likewise for 20% WWR with 5 inch wall thickness. The new
alternative does not bring extra cooling load for increasing
WWR from 20% to 40%. Besides, increasing the wall thick-
ness from 5 to 10 inch paves a way to increase WWR from
20% to 40% without amplifying the cooling load and energy
consumption. This is how the wall thickness influences the
WWR percentage sizing. Further investigations of the impact
of wall thickness on WWR sizing are represented in Figure 8
and Table 4. It is evident from Figure 8(a,c) that annual
cooling and total energy consumption increases with the
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 13
increment of WWR percentage. The increment of energy
consumption for 5 inch thickness wall type is larger than for
10 inch thickness wall type. The 5 inch wall thickness with
clear glazing window consumes larger cooling energy than
10 inch wall thickness at the same percentage of WWR. The
10 inch thick wall type lowers the heat transmission from
outside and energy load for cooling also. A regression ana-
lysis was performed considering above criteria representing in
Table 4 and Figure 8(d). The prototype building with higher
wall thickness shows small regression coefficient or small rate
of energy consumption increment with the increasing WWR
percentage. Large wall thickness causes small regression
14 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 8. Analysis of the impact of wall thickness on WWR sizing.
coefficient because it reduces heat gain from outdoor envir-
onment through conduction process as well as cooling load.
Any building having large wall thickness reduces energy con-
sumption and makes the possibility to increase the WWR
percentage keeping the energy demand at a constant value
without additional energy demand for the increment of WWR.
A building designer can increase WWR while facade is
constructed with large wall thickness. Again from Figure 8(b,d)
and Table 4, it is clear that the increment of wall thickness
does not influence the lighting load. Only annual cooling and
total energy consumption are influenced by the increment of
wall thickness. That’s why; the regression coefficients of lighting
energy consumptions remain constant for different wall thick-
ness with the increment of WWR percentage.

Figure 8. Continued.
Application of thermal insulation on exterior building wall
influences on fixing up the WWR sizing likewise the impact of
wall thickness described before. Applied thermal insulation mater-
ial was polyurethane (PUR) which is produced by a chemical reac-
tion between isocyanates and polyols. Thermal conductivity of
PUR is between (.025–0.03) W/m.K. It appears from Figure 9(a–c)
that increment of thermal insulation influences the energy con-
sumption insignificantly. The energy consumption scenarios of
various insulation thicknesses for WWR 10% to 80% are repre-
sented in Figure 9(a–c). Graphs are closely compacted due to low
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 15
variation of energy consumption reduction potentiality of thermal
insulation. A regression analysis was conducted considering above
energy consumption scenarios. The regression coefficients of differ-
ent thermal insulation thickness vary slightly representing in
Figure 9(d) and Table 4. Effectiveness of the increment of thermal
insulation thickness in Bangladeshi climatic context is less than
cold-climatic region. The impact of thermal insulation in
Bangladeshi climate is reasonable during initial application into
building facades. Firstly, applying optimum thermal insulation into
building facades can reduce energy consumption significantly.
16 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 9. Analysis of the impact of thermal insulation thickness on WWR sizing.
After that, increment of thermal insulation thickness does not
impact much to reduce energy consumption. Though the impact
of thermal insulation increment on energy consumption is small,
initial application of thermal insulation can influence the WWR
sizing by reducing reasonable amount of energy consumption.
Impact of window orientation on energy consumption and
WWR sizing
The solar heat gain of any building is directly related with WWR
percentage, building orientation, sun path, solar radiation inten-
sity on vertical and horizontal plane of a specific location of any
building. Building orientations are unequally responsible for solar
heat gain because the solar radiation intensity on different orien-
tations varies with sun path of any particular location. This study
investigates the impact of sun path, solar radiation intensity,
north, south, east and west orientations on solar heat gain and
energy consumption with varying WWR percentage. The percen-
tages of WWR in north side wall were considered as 10%, 20%,
30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% and 80% respectively and the percent-
age of WWR in south, east and west side wall was kept constant
at 10%. The south, east and west sided walls were also investi-
gated for various percentages of WWR likewise north side wall
above. The simulation results are presented graphically in Figure
10 in terms of annual cooling, lighting and total load. South ori-
ented wall shows larger amount of cooling energy consumption

Figure 9. Continued.
than other oriented wall at the same percentage of WWR repre-
senting in Figure 10(a). East and West oriented wall show mod-
erate energy consumption with the increment of the percentage
of WWR. North oriented wall shows smaller amount of cooling
energy consumption than other oriented wall at the same per-
centage of WWR representing in Figure 10(a). The lighting load
reduction potentiality of South orientation is greater than other
orientations representing in Figure 10(b). Again, South oriented
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 17
wall is responsible for consuming larger amount of total energy
than other orientations of the wall representing in Figure 10(c).
Further a regression analysis was performed by considering
above criteria for illuminating the above concepts clearly repre-
senting in Figure 10(d) and Table 4. The regression coefficient
or rate of increment of energy consumption with increasing
WWR of south direction is higher than other orientations. North
orientation shows the lowest value of regression coefficients.
18 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 10. Analysis of the impact of window orientations on WWR sizing.
North side has the lowest potentiality to increase energy con-
sumption for increasing WWR. East and west orientations repre-
sent moderate regression coefficients value.
This research developed sun path diagram of summer solstice,
winter solstice and equinox day for Bangladesh representing in
Figure 11(a–c) to illustrate the above phenomena. This study also
analyzed the solar radiation intensity on various faces of the build-
ing using Autodesk BIM Insight 360 considering weather condi-
tion of Cox’s Bazar city of Bangladesh. The annual average solar
heat gain intensity of south, west, east and north faces are 660,
572, 544 and 271 kWh/m2/year, respectively considering the period
of calculation from sunset to sunrise. South oriented wall of the
prototype building receives more solar radiation intensity on verti-
cal plane than other orientation of the building wall because it is
directly faced to the equator and exposed to direct solar radiation
representing in Figure 11. For this reason, the prototype building
showed higher annual cooling and total energy consumption for
increasing WWR percentage in south oriented wall. Solar radi-
ation intensity also depends on the direction of sun rising and set-
ting. East and west oriented wall receives the second largest solar
radiation intensity. South side wall also receives more solar radi-
ation than west side wall because of the unique operating schedule

Figure 10. Continued.
of the office building representing in Figure 12. The typical occu-
pancy period is 9 AM to 5 PM and sun cut off period is 5 PM for
this particular occupancy pattern. The sun stays in west side after
5 PM throughout a year. eQUEST does not consider solar radi-
ation of sun after 5 PM during energy simulation because of
hourly basis simulation pattern. For this particular occupancy pat-
tern, south oriented wall receives more solar radiation cumula-
tively over a year than west orientation. North oriented wall
receives the lowest amount of solar radiation intensity on its verti-
cal plane. For this reason, the prototype building shows lower
annual cooling and total energy consumption for increasing
WWR percentage in north oriented wall.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 19
Optimum WWR for Bangladeshi climate contexts
It is evident from the above descriptions that annual cooling
energy consumption amplifies and lighting load decreases with the
increment of the percentages of WWR. Finally, total annual energy
consumption also rises with the increment of WWR. So, reduction
of WWR to a very low percentage can be very helpful to minimize
annual total energy consumption largely. It is a concerning fact
that WWR is not only related with energy consumption but also
connects the indoor environment to the outside environment visu-
ally. Optimum WWR ensures a luminous comfort of building
occupants by connecting the indoor to the outdoor environment.
20 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 11. Sun path diagram of Bangladesh for different solstice days.
Chang and Chen (2005) reported that a good connection to the
outside environment improves the physiological and psychological
well-being. Access of daylight into built environment benefits the
occupants in many ways like preventing diseases like vitamin–D
deficiency, improving visual perceptions, enhancing occupant satis-
factions and improving productivity (Holick 2004; Aries et al.
2010; Hwang and Kim 2011; Mak and Lui 2012; Lee, Yoon, et al.
2013). Designing building facades with large WWR percentage in
Bangladeshi climate will be a reason of being over lighted and will
also bring a lots of solar heat gain into indoor environment.
Again, building with very small WWR facade makes the indoor
environment gloomy and sick and increases the application artifi-
cial lighting. According to survey of Xue et al. (2014), human feels
luminous discomfort for staying more than 7 hours in artificial
lighting. So there must need an optimum WWR which can handle
both luminous and thermal comfort.
The main advantages of WWR increment are reduction of
lighting load in the context of energy consumption and luminous
comfort for building occupants. A particular percentage of whole
indoor room area is illuminated by daylight at a certain percent-
age of WWR due to having diffraction nature of light. Though the
indoor room area is continuously becoming brighter by daylight
with increasing WWR, the daylightable area of the room becomes
constant at a point due to fixed dimension of room and diffrac-
tion nature of light. Figure 13 represents that the daylightable area
becomes constant for increasing WWR greater than 40%. Though

Figure 11. Continued.
Figure 12. Typical occupancy pattern of the prototype building.
the daylightable area increases due to WWR from 10% to 40%, it
becomes constant at approximately 1148 square foot for WWR
from 41% to 80%. So, increment of WWR greater than 40% can-
not be beneficial to reduce the lighting load as well as does not
add visual comfort to the occupants due to being day-lighted
already at 40% WWR. Moreover, it will bring huge amount of
solar heat gain and increase the cooling consumption load. Again
it can be seen in Figures 5(b), 6(b), 7(b), 8(b), 9(b) and 10(b) that
lighting load reduction becomes an approximate constant value
after 40% of WWR. It is apparent from Figure 5(a,c), 6(a,c),
7(a,c), 8(a,c), 9(a,c) and 10(a,c) that the slope of annual cooling
and total energy consumption curve remains smaller for WWR
10% to 40% than for WWR 41% to 80%. Finally it can be con-
cluded that the optimum WWR percentage of air-conditioned
office buildings of all regions of Bangladesh should be 30% to
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 21
40% which can fulfill both requirements of visual connection to
the outside environment and optimum energy consumption.
Regression model for optimum WWR percentage
From above descriptions, it is evident that shading height, wall
thickness and thermal insulation can reduce the cooling load and
make the possibility to increase WWR percentage by compensat-
ing or substituting the decreasing amount of cooling energy con-
sumption. These passive patterns have potentiality to increase the
WWR percentage without creating extra cooling load. When
shading height, wall thickness and thermal insulation thickness
increase, the potentiality of WWR amplification also increases.
The passive patterns and WWR percentage are linearly correlated.
This study suggests a regression model for predicting an
22 M. J. RANA ET AL.
Figure 13. Amount of daylightable area with increasing WWR.
Figure 14. Regression analysis for predicting WWR with respect to shading height.
optimum percentage of WWR in the context of Bangladeshi cli-
mate considering window shading height, wall thickness and ther-
mal insulation thickness keeping the cooling load at a minimum
constant amount. The WWR percentage was considered as
dependent variable and these passive patterns were considered as
independent variable. A multiple regression analysis was per-
formed using the simulated observations. But, there arose some
problems of multi colinearity among the independent variables.
There was a strong correlation among the passive patterns and
the combined predictive regression model could not predict the
optimum percentage of WWR accurately. When this study con-
sidered three independent variables simultaneously, the regression
model became statistically insignificant. Only, a single independ-
ent variable can predict the optimum WWR by omitting other
two independent variables and can statistically support the model
significantly. This study suggested three separate regression mod-
els considering single independent variable by omitting other two
independent variables for solving above stated issues. The best fit-
ted polynomial regression model for predicting optimum WWR
is represented in Figure 14 considering single independent
shading height variable. When the percentage of WWR becomes
greater than 20%, the increment of shading height changes the
WWR percentage insignificantly. If the window has small aper-
ture, the shading height will influence the cooling load more
effectively. When the window aperture increases along with the
increment of WWR, the shading height lets more direct solar
radiation into indoor environment due to diffraction nature of
light. The best fitted polynomial regression models for predicting
optimum WWR are displayed in Figures 15 and 16considering
single variable wall thickness and thermal insulation thickness
respectively. Initial application of higher wall thickness and ther-
mal insulation thickness can increase the WWR percentage signifi-
cantly. When the percentage of WWR is large, it reduces the
effectiveness of thermal insulation and wall thickness to optimize
cooling consumption due to minimizing the effective facade area.
In a nutshell, the passive patterns are very influential on WWR
sizing only when the WWR percentage or window aperture range
remains small. For these above stated reasons, the suggested
regression models of this study considering passive pattern can
only predict accurately below 30% of WWR.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 23

Applications of optimum percentage of WWR into a

real existing office building
This study examined the effectiveness of the optimum percentage
of WWR on energy consumption optimization through a case
study application of a real existing office building in Bangladesh.
The whole process was completed as described in Figure 2. The
selected building served at Khulna University of Engineering &
Technology (KUET) campus, Khulna, Bangladesh and named
Janata Bank, KUET Corporate Branch. The zoning pattern of
Janata Bank is displayed in Figure 17. The 3D energy model of
the case studied building was developed in eQUEST displaying
in Figure 18. Some photos of exterior and interior view of the
existing office building are shown in Figure 19. The selected
building was visited and investigated several times to collect
Figure 15. Regression analysis for predicting WWR with respect to information about occupant number, occupancy schedule, light-
wall thickness.
ing schedule, office equipment schedule, sensible heat gain, latent
heat gain and other thermal comforting factors for rendering
actual analytical model into eQUEST. The analytical properties
of the existing building requiring for energy simulation are
given below:

 Weather file: BGD_Khulna.419360_SWERA

 HVAC system: Residential 17 SEER split unit
 Thermostat set point: For Cooling ¼ 24
C (75
F) and
Supply Cooled air ¼ 16
C (60.8
F)
 Condition type: Only cooling No heating
 Window wall ratio: North Side ¼ 0.30, South Side ¼ 0.95,
East Side ¼ 0.30 and West Side ¼ 0.25.
 Shading device: No shading devices
 Occupancy schedule: 9 AM to 5 PM (5 days per week)
 Lighting Intensity: 0.50 Watt/square foot
 Office equipment loads intensity: 1.8 Watt/square foot for
common office activity area and 1.0 Watt/square foot for
manager room
 Lighting control: Switch On/Off
Figure 16. Regression analysis for predicting WWR with respect to thermal insu-
lation thickness.

Figure 17. Floor plan zoning of Janata Bank.

24 M. J. RANA ET AL.

Figure 18. Energy model of Janata Bank in eQUEST.

Figure 19. Some photos of exterior and interior of real Janata Bank Office.

 Thermal conductivity of brick wall with plaster: 0.4067 Btu/  Thermal conductivity of roof insulation gypsum board:
h-ft-
F 0.2600 Btu/h-ft-
F
 Thermal conductivity of concrete roof with plaster:  U-value of blue cobalt window Glasses: 0.96 W/m2K
0.9567 Btu/h-ft-
F  Solar heat gain coefficient of window glasses: 0.78

The office building was south faced. The south oriented wall
of Janata Bank has larger window-to-wall ratio than other orien-
tations. South oriented wall was the only option to apply the opti-
mum percentage of WWR because north, east and west oriented
wall has already installed windows as per optimum percentage of
WWR. The Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of Janata Bank was
95 kWh/m2/year considering real conditions and the EUI was
obtained from simulation result of eQUEST. After that, the 30%
of WWR was installed into all orientations of facade. Janata bank
consumed 86.87 kWh/m2/year for applying 30% of WWR into all
orientations of facade. The selected air-conditioned office building
was able to save 9.4% of annual total and cooling energy for
installing the optimum percentage of WWR strategy.
Validation
The validation was conducted through the previous case study
application of Janata Bank. Following the development of the
virtual energy model of Janata Bank, the energy consumption of
virtual model was validated by comparing with real energy con-
sumption data. The variation between energy consumption by
virtual energy model and real energy consumption must remain
within acceptable limit to be validated (Ryan and Sanquist 2012).
This study validated the energy simulations results by comparing
actual annual electricity consumption of Janata Bank with annual
electricity consumption resulted from eQUEST. Abanda and
Byers (2016) validated their energy simulation results by compar-
ing the computational data with real energy bills. Real energy bill
is often called true data and comparison with real bill is a strong
validation process (Jensen 1995). According to the data collected
from Janata bank manager, the studied building consumes
approximately 19000 kWh annually. The metered EUI of Janata
Bank was 89.05 kWh/m2/year. The virtual energy model of
Janata bank consumed 95 kWh/m2/year electricity annually
obtained from simulation by eQUEST. The virtual model’s con-
sumption results differed from actual consumption data by 5.95
percent. The acceptable limit of variation between simulated con-
sumption data and actual consumption data is approximately
±15% (Maamari et al. 2006; Reeves et al. 2012). The energy use
intensity (EUI) of the building was 95 kWh/m2/year obtained
from eQUEST. The EUI varies from 79.0 to 404.3 kWh/m2/year
for the residential and from 75.9 to 567.6 kWh/m2/year for the
commercial buildings (Belussi et al. 2019). The EUI for office
buildings in China varies from 51.1 to 107.8 6 kWh/m2/year
(Xiao et al. 2012; Yan et al. 2017). So, it was evident that virtual
energy model actually represented the real Janata Bank office as
well as low variation between simulated and real measured data
validated the computational results from eQUEST.
Conclusion
Annual total energy consumption of buildings in various selected
regions of Bangladesh is increasing continuously with the incre-
ment of the percentage of WWR. It is quite complex task to sug-
gest an optimum percentage of WWR for any region because
important factors such as thermal comfort, luminous comfort
and energy consumption are comprehensively related with WWR
simultaneously. Though slight climatic variation prevails among
the selected regions of Bangladesh, this study suggests 30% to
40% WWR for all regions of Bangladesh considering thermal
comfort, luminous comfort and optimum energy consumption.
This optimum percentage of WWR can ensure both energy effi-
ciency and luminous comfort to the building occupants. This
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 25
study also incorporated the optimum percentage of WWR into
an existing office building which was able to reduce EUI about
8.13 kWh/m2/year (95–86.87 kWh/m2/year) and save 9.40% elec-
tricity from baseline consumption of the real office building.
This optimum percentage of WWR is influenced by some passive
strategies such as window shading height, large wall thickness
with low conductive materials, thermal insulation and appropri-
ate window orientations. WWR percentage is highly correlated
with the above stated passive patterns. Application of passive
pattern reduces the cooling load and paves a way to increase the
WWR by substituting the decreasing amount of cooling load.
This work developed three regression models to predict optimum
WWR for any conditioned office building of Bangladesh keeping
the cooling load at a fixed minimum amount by considering
shading height, wall thickness and thermal insulation thickness.
This research also investigates how different orientations were
sensitive to WWR separately from regression model. The incre-
ment of WWR in southern and western face of building causes
more amount of energy consumption than the increment of
WWR in other faces such as east and north. The hierarchy of
the impact of various orientations on energy consumption for
the increment of WWR can be expressed as south-
> west > east > north. It would be a very wise decision to design
a building with large WWR percentage at north face and small
WWR percentage at south, east and west face of the conditioned
office buildings in Bangladesh. Finally, this study can guide the
architects, designers and engineers to select an appropriate per-
centage of WWR for any regions of Bangladesh and enhance the
concept of sustainable and energy efficient buildings.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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