Panes - General

General tab on Panes Dialog.

Enter the name, description and category of the pane. Also enter the source of the data.

Data type

The Data type allows you to define whether the glazing pane has solar transmission and reflectance data in spectral or broadband form. The options are:

• 1-Broadband - where transmission and reflection data is averaged across all wavelengths,
• 2-Spectral - the more accurate option where solar transmission and reflectance data is defined for a range of wavelengths between 0.1 and 4 microns on the Spectral data tab of the dialog.

Note: Where possible you should use glazing panes which have Spectral data defined because the calculations in EnergyPlus are more accurate accounting for the way solar transmission varies with wavelength. In particular, the results for glazing systems using spectral data can be significantly more accurate relative to the equivalent broadband data for panes with selective coatings e.g. low-e glass.

International Glazing Database (IGDB)

The IGDB is a comprehensive international glazing layer database compiled by NFRC and provided through the specialist WINDOW and OPTICS fenestration analysis software provided by LBNL. The IGDB contains, amongst other things, detailed spectral data for around 2500 manufacturers glazing pane products from around the world.

DesignBuilder is kept up to date with the latest version of the IGDB.