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Electrochromic windows can play an important role for energy saving as well as for controlling the visual and thermal conditions inside a room. This paper starts with a critical review and the state-of-art regarding the products today commercially available as well as the studies conducted on full scale electrochromic windows. The analysis allows to define the main parameters characterizing the electrochromic windows with particular regard to their optical, thermal and electrical characteristics, while assuming that the physical quantities, generally used to evaluate the behaviour of standard glasses, are not sufficient to evaluate the performances of the smart windows. In addition the experimental studies conducted on full scale electrochromic windows are analysed highlighting the measured physical quantities and the applied measurement methodologies considering both field and laboratory tests. Taking into account the need to accurately predict the operating characteristics and optimum design of electrochromic windows, a review of the theoretical studies available in the scientific literature as well as the developed theoretical models are presented. Finally, an experimental station for evaluating the on-site performances of different types of full scale smart windows and the layout of sensors used for the acquisition of internal and external physical quantities was described.

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More and more cities are evolving into smart cities, increasing their attractiveness, energy efficiency, and users’ satisfaction. Lighting systems play an important role in the evolution process, thanks to their ability to affect city life at night along with people’s mood and behaviour. In this scenario, advanced lighting design methods such as virtual reality (VR) became essential to assess lighting systems from different points of view, especially those linked with the city users’ expectations. Initially, the review highlights a list of objective and subjective parameters to be considered for the lighting design of three main city areas/applications: roads, green areas and buildings. Besides, the state-of-art in using VR for outdoor lighting design is established. Finally, the Unreal game engine is used to analyse the ability of VR to take into account the lighting parameters, not yet investigated in current literature and to highlight the VR potential for augmenting lighting design. The results confirm the benefit of using VR in lighting design, even if further investigations are needed to establish its reliability, especially from the photometrical point of view.

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