analysis of building energy consumption due to transparent and opaque materials used in exterior walls

Opaque and transparent materials are always influential factors in regulating the temperature in buildings, whose effects on the energy consumption of buildings are aimed to be studied in this work. the variables considered in this research are transparent material as the type of windows and non-transparent material as the covering materials on the exterior layer of external walls in a case study of a hypothetical building in tehran. engineering details of the base model are chosen according to the standards of the tehran construction engineering organization. six different types of windows including single-glazed, double-glazed-air- or argon-filled, and triple-glazed with or without low-e cover, and 11 common types of opaque materials including ceramic, aluminum composite tile, polished and ordinary travertine, granite, black and white marble, refractory brick, red brick, 3-cm yellow brick, and concrete are studied and the energy consumption of each via each material is calculated by simulations in honeybee (grasshopper). as an important novelty, the energy consumption of various combinations (66) of transparent and opaque materials is also investigated. consequently, the opaque materials and transparent materials are sorted in terms of energy consumption. the results are compared using colibri and through the design explorer website. the results demonstrate that energy consumption is decreased by about 13% when a combination of double-glaze-air-low-e and polished travertine are used, compared to the base model.