Abstract
Daylight availability knowledge is the first step for an energetic and visually efficient building and city design. It can be estimated with the Vertical Sky Component (VSC), which is defined as the ratio of the vertical diffuse illuminance over the unobstructed horizontal diffuse illuminance, simultaneously measured at the same point. These illuminance magnitudes are obtained from luxmeter measurements but these data are scarce. Alternatively, VSC can be obtained from prior knowledge of the sky illuminance distribution, which can be measured with a sky scanner device or by reference to the CIE (Commission Internationale de L’Éclairage) Standard classification for homogeneous skies. Both approaches are compared in this study. The coherence of the results obtained for the four cardinal orientations are analyzed by applying classical statistical parameters and luxmeter measurements as references for the results. The measurement campaign was completed between September 2016 and January 2019 in Burgos (Spain), as representative case study and specific contribution of this work. It was observed that the VSC values were higher than 100 in many cases: 21.94% for the south- and 33.6% for the east-facing vertical surfaces. The study highlights the good daylighting conditions in Burgos, mainly due to the predominance of clear skies over much of the year. This fact implies high daylight availability that, with efficient city planning and building design, could potentially lead reduction energy consumption of buildings, improvements in visual comfort, and the well-being of occupants.
Highlights
Daylighting is a design concept of buildings used over the years with varying degrees of success.It has been proven that buildings with good daylighting have positive effects on the well-being and health of occupants, reducing stress levels, and improving mood and photobiological effects [1,2,3,4,5].The International Energy Agency (IEA) promoted the use of daylight as a means of reducing electricity consumption on lighting [6], and increasing the energy efficiency of buildings [7,8]
This study focused on the determination of Vertical Sky Component (VSC) in Burgos, September and January in Burgos (Spain), for which purpose different alternative proposals for its calculation are compared
VSC were compared and an extensive campaign of measures was carried out over more than two Taking the VSC value calculated with luxmeter measures as a reference, the use of the sky luminance years
Summary
Daylighting is a design concept of buildings used over the years with varying degrees of success. VSC has been proposed as an appropriate method, both for categorizing the CIE Standard General Skies and for determining daylight illuminance on inclined surfaces with various orientations [17,32]. The use of the CIE standard classification could represent an alternative means of estimating VSC As it has been pointed out, the determination of daylight availability is a complex issue due to scarce experimental data needed for all methodologies proposed. It is mandatory the establishment of the equivalence among the different methodologies for obtaining daylighting through any of the proposed methods and even the possible combination between them when necessary. VSC: Available experimental data of horizontal global, diffuse, and beam illumination; through the data from experimental sky scanner measurements; and the CIE standard classification for homogeneous skies.
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