Empirical validations of solar gain models for a glazing unit with exterior and interior blind assemblies

Experiments performed at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) test cell located in Duebendorf, Switzerland were used for empirical validations of building energy simulation programs. Four solar gain experiments were run with either an exterior Venetian blind or an interior mini-blind mounted over a glazing unit with the blind slats in the horizontal position and with the outer slat edge toward the ground tilted downward 45°. Models of the test cell setup were constructed in two distinctive building energy simulation programs, EnergyPlus and HELIOS, and the measured cooling power in the test cell was compared with the simulated cooling powers. For these experiments, the mean percentage of the absolute mean differences for EnergyPlus and HELIOS were all within 6.1 and 7.1%, respectively.