The background of this thesis is based on improving energy efficiency and indoor comfort on building renovation projects. The objective was to examine solar radiation effects and compare different solar shading solutions on an existing office building located in Tampere, Finland.

Research method in this study was dynamic simulation, which was used to compare effects of chosen solar shading solutions on the target building’s annual heating-, cooling- and lighting energy consumption and indoor comfort. The software used for dynamic simulations was IDA Indoor and Climate Energy developed by EQUA Simulations AB.

Simulation results demonstrate that modern selective glasses can reduce target areas heating energy consumption up to 45 percent. Solar shading, in comparison reduced cooling energy consumption between 30 and 95 %, depending on solution. Solar shading on other hand slightly increased lighting and heating energy consumption in most examined cases.

In addition, solar shading energy reducing effect, lowered target areas maximum operative temperatures and therefore improved indoor comfort which affects essentially working efficiency. In conclusion, the benefits from solar shading should not be defined only in terms of money due to decreased energy consumption but also in terms of increased working efficiency and property value.