Making Sense of Standard Size Aluminum Window for Residential Buildings in Indonesia

Window is one of the critical components to provide comfort in buildings. Nevertheless, the manufacturing process of window creates inevitable waste. Therefore, promoting efficient use of material is necessary and it can be initiated from the supply side. This study aims to propose standard window sizes to reduce waste in the production phase. In addition, the effects of the proposed sizes on the thermal environment was also investigated through series of numerical simulations. Aluminum window was chosen because it has been widely used in Indonesia. The results show that the standard-size can be proposed using market-driven and production efficiency approaches, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed sizes could generate 84.3% lower waste than the typical size. In addition, under cross ventilation, the proposed window size could provide desirable ventilation performance. The results indicate that the standard-size window can be beneficial not only to the waste management but also to the overall building performance.