Areas and Types of Glazing and other Openings in the Nondomestic Building Stock

In this paper I will report an empirical study of the patterns and areas of openings—windows, rooflights, and doors—in a sample of nondomestic buildings. Strong correlations are shown, for some selected groups of building types, between total areas of openings and total floor areas. The results are being used in the development of a database of the Nondomestic Building Stock for the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, whose main purpose is to test policies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The findings should have applications in other areas of building science which are concerned with glazing, especially in the modelling of lighting and thermal performance.