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Windows are responsible for the largest amount of energy loss related to building envelope. Past studies on the energy consumption of windows have mainly focused on residential and commercial buildings, while few studies have explored the energy consumption of windows in educational buildings. The sizes and locations of classroom windows affect not only the building energy consumption but also the indoor environment quality, which is an issue that needs to be balanced. This paper takes a classroom in Guangzhou as the object. Under the premise of meeting the lighting standards of the classroom, two parameters—window height and sill height —were simulated in different corridors of north–south and east–west classrooms to analyse the impact of their changes on the indoor environment as well as energy consumption based on the parametric platform Grasshopper and its plug-ins Ladybug and Honeybee. The energy consumption of a number of fenestration combinations on both sides of the classroom was optimized automatically by genetic algorithm, and the sizes and positions of windows that benefitted energy savings were obtained. In the best case ~16.6% of energy consumed in a whole year can be saved compared with the worst case. This conclusion can provide a quick decision-making process for the design of window shapes for the purpose of energy savings in the early design stage of educational buildings in the Pearl River Delta such that energy savings can be quickly and clearly guaranteed in the subsequent window configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double skin facades (DSFs) have overheating problems in warm seasons which may increase the cooling loads in buildings. A previous study has developed an integrated phase change material (PCM) blind system and proved its capacity of mitigating the overheating phenomenon in DSFs. This paper focuses on the effect of design parameters on the thermal performance of such systems by conducting a simulation study of a DSF integrated with a PCM blind with different material properties, positions in cavity, and tilt angles of blades. The results indicate that the performance of the integrated PCM blind system can be optimised with careful geometric design and proper thermophysical properties of the PCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]