Abstract
Recent studies on light shelves found that building energy efficiency could be maximized by applying photovoltaic (PV) modules to light shelf reflectors. Although PV modules generate a substantial amount of heat and change the consumption of indoor heating and cooling energy, performance evaluations carried out thus far have not considered these factors. This study validated the effectiveness of PV module light shelves and determined optimal specifications while considering heating and cooling energy savings. A full-scale testbed was built to evaluate performance according to light shelf variables. The uniformity ratio was found to improve according to the light shelf angle value and decreased as the PV module installation area increased. It was determined that PV modules should be considered in the design of light shelves as their daylighting and concentration efficiency change according to their angles. PV modules installed on light shelves were also found to change the indoor cooling and heating environment; the degree of such change increased as the area of the PV module increased. Lastly, light shelf specifications for reducing building energy, including heating and cooling energy, were not found to apply to PV modules since PV modules on light shelf reflectors increase building energy consumption.
Highlights
In addition to the depletion of major energy sources, the rise in energy consumption has become a threat to our society, causing a range of environmental problems [1,2]
In summer and mid-season, installing a light shelf improved the indoor light environment, and increasing the light shelf angle increased the amount of natural light entering the room, improving the uniformity ratio
Adjusting the light shelf angle to 30◦ during mid-season was unsuitable because external natural light directly flowed into the room only through the light shelf reflector, reducing the uniformity ratio and causing an uncomfortable glare
Summary
In addition to the depletion of major energy sources, the rise in energy consumption has become a threat to our society, causing a range of environmental problems [1,2]. The demand for research and technology development to save energy is growing throughout our society. The energy used for space heating, space cooling, and lighting accounts for 20.8%, 10.0%, and 11.3% of building energy consumption, respectively. These factors must be considered in research and technology development to save building energy. Among these technologies for saving building energy, a light shelf is a typical natural daylighting system that works as building envelope element technology installed in windows to introduce external natural light deep into a room through the use of reflection.
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