The availability of daylight from tropical skies—a case study of Malaysia

In Malaysia, no long-term daylight data are measured. It was only recently that the need to measure the availability of daylight became urgent when the importance of daylighting in buildings was rediscovered. The hourly daylight availability has been simulated for the Malaysian sky using daylight modelling techniques based on empirical and measured solar irradiation and cloud cover data. This paper presents the techniques involved in producing exterior illuminance data. These data were then compared with measured illuminance at Shah Alam and Bangi, Malaysia. The global illuminance levels are generally high, with values exceeding 80,000 lux at noon during the months when solar irradiation is highest. Even during the months when the ground receives less solar irradiation, the peak illuminance can reach 60,000 lux. Applications and uses of such data are in daylighting design, both for visual and thermal comfort, task illuminance and energy-conscious design of buildings. Recommendations are made at the end of the paper on the various climatic data that are required to be measured for overall daylighting design applications.     

Passive solar systems for heating, daylighting and ventilation for rooms without an equator-facing facade

Spaces without northerly orientations have an impact on the ‘energy behaviour’ of a building. This paper outlines possible energy savings and better performance achieved by different zenithal solar passive strategies (skylights, roof monitors and clerestory roof windows) and element arrangements across the roof in zones of cold to temperate climates typical of the central and central-southern Argentina. Analyses were undertaken considering daylighting, thermal and ventilation performances of the different strategies. The results indicate that heating, ventilation and lighting loads in spaces without an equator-facing facade can be significantly reduced by implementing solar passive strategies. In the thermal aspect, the solar saving fraction reached for the different strategies were averaged 43.16% for clerestories, 41.4% for roof monitors and 38.86% for skylights for a glass area of 9% to the floor area. The results also indicate average illuminance levels above 500 lux for the different clerestory and monitor arrangements, uniformity ratios of 0.66–0.82 for the most distributed arrangements and daylighting factors between 11.78 and 20.30% for clear sky conditions, depending on the strategy. In addition, minimum air changes rates of 4 were reached for the most extreme conditions.     

Lighting preferences in office spaces concerning the indoor thermal environment

The accurate prediction of the visual comfort zone in an indoor environment is difficult as it depends on many parameters. This is especially the case for large compact urban areas in which the density and shadow from neighboring buildings can limit the accessible daylighting in indoor spaces. This paper investigates the satisfaction range for illuminance regarding indoor air temperature in office buildings and the significant parameters affecting this range in six office buildings in Tehran, Iran. Lighting comfort has been evaluated by a subjective survey (509 total responses) and field measurement. The questionnaires were filled out in 146 and 109 rooms in summer and winter, respectively. The results show that the illuminance should not be less than 550 lx, while illuminance between 600 and 650 lx provides the highest satisfaction level. The satisfaction with lighting level is affected by individual parameters such as age, type of activity, and environmental parameters such as window orientation, external obscurations, and season. A relationship was observed between lighting level satisfaction and thermal condition acceptance, and the overall comfort depends more on thermal conditions than the lighting level.     

Effectiveness of daylighting design and occupant visual satisfaction in a LEED Gold laboratory building

Using daylight as primary light source has been widely recognized as an important strategy to reduce building energy demand and enhance indoor environment quality. However, to design and operate a building to make full use of daylight, which is a dynamic light source, to meet diverse occupant needs remains a challenge. This paper reports a post-occupancy study of the visual environment in a laboratory building on a university campus, and puts a spotlight on the building occupants as it examines the effectiveness of the daylighting design and systems integration in creating a visual environment to support occupant comfort and satisfaction while reducing artificial lighting demand. Results show generally high satisfaction with daylit work environment and positive effect of the horizontal shading strategy. Issues about the integration between daylighting and electric lighting systems and level of occupant control are identified and discussed for improving the effectiveness of daylighting and enhancing the quality of the visual environment in the building of study. A multiple-tool methodology is developed and tested, which included occupant surveys, interviews, illuminance measurements, continuous data loggers, fisheye-lens camera and glare-identifying software, and documentation of spatial settings, systems features, and user behavior.     

Photometry and colorimetry characterisation of materials in daylighting evaluation tools

This paper presents a methodology for evaluating the photometric and colorimetric characteristics of internal building materials, for daylight evaluation. The assessment of these characteristics is crucial both for modelling materials accurately in daylight simulation tools and for building correct daylight mock-ups. The essential photometric and colorimetric parameters that influence the reflection of light from and its transmission through building materials are identified and described. Several methods for evaluating these parameters qualitatively and quantitatively are then proposed and discussed. Our new methodology was fused to create a database of materials in a freely accessible web tool which compares full-size materials to scale-model materials in order to help architects and lighting designers choose materials for building daylight scale models.     

Development of a cost-effective solar illumination system to bring natural light into the building core

This paper describes a novel and cost-effective way of providing direct sunlight to the core areas of a multi-storey building. In this system, sunlight is collected by a structure, called the solar canopy illumination system, which attaches to the building directly above the windows on each floor. The sunlight is then redirected by the optical components within the canopy and distributed within the building through a series of special-purpose light guides. These guides pipe the sunlight into the building, and also efficiently incorporate electric light sources so that they can provide supplemental lighting as necessary. This system combines several important energy-saving features and uses components that can be low cost in volume manufacturing. As a result, the system has the potential to be truly cost-effective based on the energy savings. The widespread adoption of such a system could substantially reduce energy consumption worldwide which would make a significant contribution toward greenhouse gas mitigation.     

Exploring the synergy of building massing and façade design through evolutionary optimization

In performance-based architectural design optimization, the design of building massings and façades is commonly separated, which weakens the effectiveness in performance improvement. In response, this study proposes a hybrid massing-façade integrated design generation and optimization workflow to integrate the two elements in an evolutionary design process. Compared with the existing approaches, the proposed workflow emphasizes the diversity of building design generation, with which various combinations of building massing forms and façade patterns can be systematically explored. Two case studies and a corresponding comparison study are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed workflow. Results show that the optimization can produce designs coupling the potential of building massings and façades in performance improvement. In addition, the optimization can provide information that supports early-stage architectural design exploration. Such information also enables the architect to understand the performance implications associated with the synergy of building massing and façade design.     

Luminous impact of balcony floor at atrium spaces with different well geometries

The atrium concept allows the exploitation of daylighting by bringing natural light into the center of the buildings, thus enhancing a more even distribution of daylight. The configuration of interior balconies, however, is determined based on the purpose of the interior space and the use of the building, which may defeat the primary daylighting advantages inherent in the atrium concept. The authors have developed insights regarding the critical daylighting performance factors by evaluating the relative effect of various interior balcony configurations on illumination level and its distribution with different atrium geometries. For these, parametric measurements of illumination level with a scale model of a four-sided atrium building and various interior balcony configurations have been conducted under diffuse sky conditions within the sky simulator at a Texas university. This paper represents the atrium performance results in terms of daylight factor, Well index, balcony Well index, the configuration of interior balcony; and the results are compared with basecase atria without any interior balcony. As expected, Well index and balcony depth are the most significant factors in daylighting performance in atrium spaces with interior balconies. For the position not covered by balcony, adequate illumination can be achieved for circulation regardless of building Well index and balcony depth although it may be that involved well indices are relatively low. On the other hand, light attenuation on the position under balcony floor is up to 70–90%, in particular, when the Well index becomes higher than 1 m and balcony floor becomes deeper than 3 m.     

Overview and new developments in optical daylighting systems for building a healthy indoor environment

Optical daylighting technology can deliver natural light to a space in a building where daylight is limited. This study gives an overview of two optical daylighting systems for capturing natural light: light pipe systems and mirror sunlighting systems. The literature on optical system theories and developments is identified and commercial products for optical daylighting systems on the market are described. By using a survey of major applications for optical daylighting systems, this study provides practical advice to building designers and researchers and also shows a light pipe system and a mirror sunlighting system developed from this investigation as well as an evaluation of their performance. The evaluation measured the illuminance of the two optical systems installed in a test room and a living room. This study concluded that optical daylighting systems can provide adequate visual comfort and can save energy if they are carefully designed.