Insulated Window Shutters in a Swedish Office Building

Abstract: As a consequence of the increasing energy demand, the European Commission is making stricter regulations concerning energy use. In Sweden, a third of the energy is used by buildings and 60 % of that is used for heating, meaning that there is potential for saving energy in buildings by using it more efficiently. In this report, insulated window shutters are examined in order to see if they have any positive effect on the energy performance in a Swedish office building. The shutters are compared to a baseline scenario and a scenario where low-energy windows are used. Simulations of the different scenarios are carried out in IDA Indoor Climate and Energy where space heating, space cooling and electricity are studied. The simulations serve as a basis for an economic and environmental comparison.The results show the largest reduction in energy use and CO2 emissions by using insulated window shutters in the building, however, they are also the most expensive solution due to investment, installation and maintenance costs. The baseline scenario has the highest energy use but it is also the cheapest one. The shutters are the most cost effective solution to lower the energy use and the CO2 emissions compared to the levels in the baseline scenario.A recommendation for future work is to investigate how to manufacture, operate and implement the shutters in order to make a commercially available product, which includes experiments and case studies.