[Radiance-general] calculation of shading coefficient with Radiance?

[Greg Ward]

Hi Valeria,

This is probably one for the FAQ (if only there was a FAQ)...   
Radiance has a preferred color space, but it does not require that  
you use it.  You can assign the three (RGB) channels to be anything  
you like, including total solar transmission/reflectance/whatever.   
Bear in mind that solar heat gain is also affected by thermal  
conductance and convection, which are not considered in an optical  
ray-tracing calculation such as Radiance.  To the extent that IR  
behaves as visible light, however, Radiance may be trusted.

I hope this helps.
-Greg

> From: "Valeria De Giuli" <valeriadegiuli at gmail.com>
> Date: March 17, 2008 7:57:20 AM PDT
>
> Hi all!
> Sorry for my bad English. I'm a quite new user of Radiance and I'm
> interested in energy performance of buildings. I would like to know if
> it is possible to calculate the performance of a shading system
> (venetian blinds, light shelf, etc.) in terms of reducing solar
> radiation. Does Radiance consider all the spectrum in calculating
> irradiance? My aim is to try different shading systems in a office
> room and to analyse their bahaviour in terms of shading coefficient.
> Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance,
> Valeria