Abstract
Adaptive opaque facades can dynamically adapt their thermal properties according to both outdoor and indoor conditions, hence can enhance the energy efficiency of the building while maintaining high indoor environmental quality. Traditional façade thermal performance metrics such as U-value or R-value can be useful to evaluate the energy performance of buildings. However, the adaptive opaque façade systems require versatile testing protocols to characterize their thermal performance under their various operation modes. This paper provides a comprehensive review the experimental testing protocols and standards that have been reported to characterize the dynamic thermal performance of adaptive opaque façades. These testing protocols are compared to those commonly used to evaluate conventional building envelope assemblies. The outcomes of the review include a set of recommendations to develop laboratory testing set-ups, protocols, and metrics to consistently measure the dynamic thermal performance of adaptive opaque facades.