Office worker preferences of electrochromic windows: a pilot study

Electrochromic (EC) windows for building applications are a major issue within the built environment scientist community. A building envelope equipped with electro-optical glasses makes it possible to improve both its energy performance and the visual environment of the occupants. EC windows act as active components which can modulate the solar light flux input in order to attain energy saving. They also provide a better visual environment and a sensible cut of glare phenomena. A full-scale user response experiment was set up in order to test how EC windows work in practice. A scale 1:1 room was equipped with commercial EC devices and 30 people were brought there to work for a definite time period. The participants followed a short training course in order to get accustomed to the manual control systems through which EC glazing coloration depth, electric lighting, and insertion of a semi-transparent blind can be regulated. During the experiment, they were to fill a questionnaire previously developed ad hoc. Relevant indoor and outdoor parameters were continuously monitored and the measured data were used to cross check with the questionnaire answers. The analysis of the collected data provided significant outcomes in relation to the userʹs behaviour and preferences, thus allowing a preliminary evaluation of building integrated EC glazing system performance.