Long-term Monitoring and Simulations of the Daylighting and Thermal Performance of an Anidolic Daylighting System on a Tropical Urban House

Abstract

A poorly lit interior due to high external obstruction from the neighbourhood is a common problem in dense urban settlements. To improve the daylighting performance; meanwhile, to maintain its thermal performance of a living room in a tropical urban house, an anidolic daylighting system (ADS) was applied on the east facade. Long-term monitoring and simulations were conducted before and after the ADS installation to assess the room's daylighting and thermal performance. The living room's daylight levels and the daylighting glare probability (DGP) were analyzed using Radiance and Evalglare based lighting simulation softwares. Design Builder was employed to observe the thermal impact of the application. Whereas, the long-term monitoring of the ADS performance covered field measurements of the living room's daylight levels, DGP, air temperature, relative humidity and ADS collector's surface temperature before and after the ADS installation. Long-term monitoring and simulation results prove that ADS is a promising solution for daylighting problems in tropical regions. It convincingly improved the daylight levels within the imperceptible glare range without the increasing of the indoor air temperature.