Available solar energy in a room as a function of area and shape of window

The influence of the orientation of the apertures on the energy performance of the building is outlined by several publications concerning bio climatic architecture. The influence of the morphology of windows on available solar gains seems to be less investigated. In this paper the direct and global solar radiation penetrating through the aperture on the wall was computed as a function of its geometry (area, shape and number of windows). The aperture was closed by a double glazing normally used in private premises to assure a better thermal insulation. All the obtained results only apply to the specific conditions examined here: a vertical façade facing South and located in Venice, isotropic sky, etc. This last assumption was forcedly made because no irradiance values of the sky have been published for this pIace.