Performance of Innovative Water-flow Solar Glazing at Sport Centres

In building energy consumption, window design can be of crucial importance because of its weak thermal insulation characteristics at the building facade. Double-glazing is increasingly in use in tropical and subtropical climate regions. Using multiple glass panes incorporated with sealed air/gas and low-emissivity coating improves the window insulation significantly. Although water has been widely used in solar thermal systems, its role in solar heat extraction via window glazing is not well examined. Our preliminary work shows that the use of window glass as solar water pre-heater and as a thermal insulation device at building facade can be very effective in conserving energy. Such glazing system is deemed to have very good application potential in buildings with high demands of hot water, like sports centers. This project proposal is to study the year round performance of the above based on practical sports centre projects in Hong Kong and to evaluate the long-term environmental significance.