Enhancement of energy efficiency and daylighting in buildings

Abstract

Daylighting is the process of using natural sunlight to light a building to help reduce energy costs, especially in commercial buildings. The process of daylighting includes controlling the amount of natural light (both diffuse and direct) entering a building. Essentially, daylighting is a means to provide energy services without using fuels rather it is just the direct use of primary energy flows. Although the general goal of daylighting is to reduce the amount of necessary electric lighting to save energy, it is equally important not to let too much light into the building. It is true that all the thoughts must be put into daylighting, yet it requires a lot of planning. Daylighting includes features such as skylights and windows that let light into the building, but these are generally accompanied by a lighting control system that is responsive to the amount of daylight entering the building. When enough daylight enters the building, these systems turn into dim or turn off lights. newlineDaylighting design is becoming prevalent in contemporary buildings in the effort to create an even more environment that is sustainable living. Past and current bodies of research emerged mainly concentrated on different ways of predicting the daylight, that is measuring and range which several technologies can access. In the first stage of the research work, the implementation of the light solve approach that offers architects and building engineers support for daylighting design that can be employed interactively within the existing design process. newline newline