Investigation of heat transfer in a triple-glazing type window at greek climate conditions

Heat loss through building windows has a major effect on the energy efficiency of the buildings. The window studied in this paper is a triple-glazing type window pane in which spaces contain dry air. The window is placed in a specially developed test chamber at the Energy and Environmental Research Laboratory of Central Greece University of Applied Sciences at Chalkida. At one side of the test chamber variable temperature environment for different temperature waving scenarios (20–30°C, 25–35°C, 20–35°C) adequate for Greek climate and at the other side steady constant temperature environment (20°C, 25°C) representing indoors conditions were created. Glass surface temperatures at both sides of the tested window pane and heat flux through it were measured. For triple-glazing thermal transmittance calculation a model of equations in visual basic was developed which accounts for the equations of conduction, convection and radiation in every layer of window pane. A sufficient agreement between the experimental results and the results of the model is noticed.