Daylight harvesting 1

Daylight conception and design practice in the construction industry

Daylight harvesting 2 Abstract

Lighting is the large energy user in any building. It affect the environment by raising heat. Daylight harvesting can help to reduce the energy consumption and raising heat. In the modern building designers integrate daylight concept at the initial stage of any project. This study focuses on the conception of daylighting. Actually how much daylight can be harvested into the building with what quality is also discussed here. In the construction industry what is current trends about daylight and what are the approach to do the daylight design was studied. A research has done on the simulation software for the design purpose for the daylighting calculation. The work going on to find out how much energy can be saved by daylight harvesting.

Daylight harvesting 3

Introduction Lighting consumes a major portion of energy in modern building. In our building we are using artificial lighting system even in the daytime. This trend is on practice for long time. It was not thought before that temperature of the environment is on rise for huge heats that produced when we use these conventional lighting systems. Sustainable building design is being practiced all over the world. In any sustainable building daylight strategy has become an essential goal. Daylighting can be a substitute of conventional electric lighting and can save significant portion of energy. It is the natural lighting that gets entry to the building in a controlled way. It allows occupants to dim or turn off a building s electric lights to save energy. It can be provided through windows, clerestories, roof monitors, skylights, sawtooth roofs, or special light-pipe systems. It is very important to integrate daylighting into the building s overall design, interior spaces, electric lighting system, and mechanical systems for the purpose of saving more energy (P. Wirdzek and W. Lintner 2003 p.1). Many research shows user feels very comfort using daylight in their working area .In this paper we will do little study on daylighting and we will discuss on following issue: Daylighting conception Amount and quantity of daylight harvesting Daylighting simulation and design practice Amount of energy savings can be obtained from daylighting

Daylighting conception Daylighting (also known as daylight harvesting) conception is not very hard to understand. It means in the day time we can harvest the natural light inside our building in many ways through the windows, doors, roofs etc. Daylight can reduce the pressure on the artificial lighting system, reduce the energy consumption and ultimately helping to reduce temperature rising of the world to save our environment. Generally through window and skylight daylight can be harvested into the building. The amount of daylighting in the building is not same all over the area inside the building. The more daylight is available the more near to the window. How much daylight we can harvest into the building is depends on many factors such as the orientation of the building, window size and distance, skylight, walls,

Daylight harvesting 4 ceilings, furniture also how we want to bring that in. This engage the design team to consider it at the initial stage of their design process. Many disciplines of the design team involvement are necessary for this purpose. Daylight can be integrated with the artificial lighting system by intelligent control systems. For example if there is daylight available the artificial light will be dimmed automatically according to the levels of daylight without disturbing the person who is working in that area. The most benefits can be achieved from daylight system is in the office buildings, commercial buildings, industrial building or government building and the reason for that is they are normally open on the daytime when maximum daylight is available. Conception of daylight is very simple and it is introduced in the construction industry to reduce the energy consumption and also to contribute environmental improvement.

Amount and quality of daylight harvesting According to P. Wirdzek and W. Lintner 2003 (p.1) the amount of daylight in a space is not only depends on simply number of windows or their orientation but it is more than that. The designers need to locate and size the windows and other elements so that relatively even amount of brightness in the building s interior can be obtained, also can avoid excess heat and glare, and minimize the amount of bright sunlight that falls directly on work areas. Good daylighting design can be an art as well as a science. In any project if the architect does not experiences of designing a daylit space then definitely a daylighting consultant is necessary. What consultants do they use computer modeling tools to size window openings properly, specify glazing properties, integrate daylighting with electric lights, and specify the lighting control system. The factors they consider ensure that interior spaces have the proper quantity as well as quality of light for a given set of tasks.( P. Wirdzek and W. Lintner 2003, P.6) About quality of daylight P. Wirdzek and W. Lintner 2003 (p.6) says Proper light quality is important. Quality issues include the uniformity of light levels and control of glare and veiling reflections. Some variation in light levels is pleasant, but too much causes eyestrain and unnecessary use of shades and electric lights. A well-daylit space has relatively even brightness, low contrast ratios (where the illuminance levels in the space vary by less than a 3:1 ratio), and windows on two sides to provide more uniform light. Glare and veiling reflections obscure people s ability to see details and cause eyestrain.

Daylight harvesting 5 (Glare is extreme brightness in the field of view; veiling reflections are caused by vertical specular surfaces, such as computer monitors, that reflect light into the eye.) A good daylighting system avoids these problems by minimizing or eliminating direct daylight on visual tasks. Quality and quantity of daylight is very important and it does not depend on the number of doors and windows but on proper design. The consultants are considering many factors to get the high quality and better amount of daylight within the building. Daylighting simulation and design practice A survey made by C. Reinhart*, A. Fitz 2006 (p.1,2,3,11.12) has showed that that the 91% of the designer use daylight aspects in their building design. They have done detail study to find out the most common daylight simulation tools are in use in the construction design industry and also what difficulties are the designer facing and finally to provide guidance to the software developer. The information has drawn from this paper discussed as follows. Before developing the daylighting simulation software the rule of thumb method, design guide in the respective country, formulas/spreadsheets were in use but in these methods the problem was to quantify and qualify the daylighting in a space. This problem has given the base on software development for the daylight simulation. It has revealed from the survey that most of the designers in the industry are using computer simulation system for design. But it was very difficult to get the hands on training on these software because lack of the owner interest, time constraints, and lack of required skilled trainer. Despite of software complexity it was mentioned that the most common training method for the software learning was the self-training method. The software tools mostly designers use in the design development period than the schematic design time. They do the parameter study by using the software and the outputs that were derived are mainly daylight factor and interior illuminances. The obtained outcome is used to explain to the clients. There are many simulation tools are in use in the design industry among them most commonly used simulation system is RADIANCE. Mayhoub, M. S., & Carter, D. J. 2010 (p. 5,6,17,18) made a review on hybrid light development. Tubular daylight guidance, integrated lighting, hybrid lighting were discussed there. Daylight guidance is becoming more attractive to the designers the reason is, it can help to deliver daylight deep into interiors of the building Many designers are using computer simulation tools for daylight design instead of rule of thumb and other system. RADIANCE is the most used tools. Daylight guidance is another innovation which helps to provide daylight deep interior of the building.

Daylight harvesting 6 Amount of energy savings can be obtained from daylighting Amount of energy savings by using daylight is not easy to determine. The researcher and designers are trying to find the way to provide the maximum daylight into the building. We can have a idea from Mike Kennedy 2007 (P.2) "To get half of the energy savings possible from daylighting is one of the easiest things to do," says Michael Nicklas, president of Innovative Design in Raleigh, N.C. "To get the full energy-savings potential from daylighting is one of the hardest."

Daylighting conception is in practiced in the construction industry for long time. User feel comport to work on daylight. It can save the energy consumption in the building and help to build green society. Quality and quantity of the daylight depends on many factors and consultants consider these factors for the better output. Designers integrated daylighing with a desire to create low energy buildings with good daylight penetration. They use computer simulation tools in their design. Amount of saving energy is not easy to find out but best efforts are engaged for maximum savings.

References Phil Wirdzek and Will Lintner, P.E. (2003). LABORATORIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY:BEST PRACTICES from http://www.epa.gov/lab21gov/pdf/bp_daylight_508.pdf Reinhart, C., & Fitz, A. (2006). Findings from a survey on the current use of daylight simulations in building design. Energy & Buildings, 38(7), 824-835. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2006.03.012 Mayhoub, M. S., & Carter, D. J. (2010). Towards hybrid lighting systems: A review. Lighting Research & Technology, 42(1), 51-71. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Mike Kennedy (2007). Lighting the way from www.asumag.com