Daylight sufficiency of indoor environments under climate change scenarios

Abstract

The bioclimatic performance of buildings under climate change scenarios has been extensively studied from a thermo-energy perspective but hardly studied at all from the perspective of indoor daylight sufficiency. This shortcoming is related to the invariability of radiation data in the available weather files of future scenarios. This research proposes identifying the impacts that the variability of radiation data in weather files of future scenarios would have on daylight sufficiency in indoor spaces. The methodology includes the adaptation of available weather files and the running of daylight simulations for hypothetical workspaces located in Medellín, Colombia. The results show differences in the Spatial Daylight Autonomy – SDA metric of up to 18% in different future scenarios. In conclusion, the need is outlined to refine predictions of outdoor daylight availability that allow improving daylight performance evaluations under climate change scenarios.