Parametric Analysis of Architectural Elements on Daylight, Visual Comfort, and Electrical Energy Performance in the Study Spaces

Abstract

The quality of visual comfort has always been an essential element considering human comfort. Providing visual comfort in a living environment reduces the need for artificial lighting, which subsequently has a direct relationship with energy consumptions and its expenses. Besides, the maximum possible usage of daylight instead of artificial lighting significantly contributes to providing a favourable condition in terms of visual comfort for the residents. This essential factor is manifested in public spaces, such as libraries that are associated with students and the quality of their study time. The main aim of this paper is to provide applied solutions to use more natural lighting strategies as an alternative for artificial lighting, which helps to reduce electric energy consumption while providing visual comfort for users. The role of architectural elements, such as the position and dimensions of the windows, reflectivity of materials, layout of surfaces, and appropriateness of space in line with the objectives as mentioned earlier are examined thoroughly. For this purpose, literature studies, as well as computer simulations via Relux software, are utilized to investigate the set research objectives. Finally, the simulation results suggest that the best orientation to achieve the optimal model using daylight in study spaces is northern-southern orientation. In addition, using windows with maximum height in the middle of the transverse front of buildings with window to wall ratio of 35 to 45 percent along the vertical and horizontal divisions (grid) is suitable for such places. Design criteria include the higher access to daylight, visual comfort, and reduction of electrical energy consumption. The reflectivity coefficients for roof materials, floor, and walls are 0.6, 0.4, 0.4, and 0.6, respectively, and transparency for windows is 80%. The obtained results also suggest the length-to-width ratio and height-to-width ratio are 6-to-5 while horizontal and vertical surfaces in near windows and in middle space along the longitudinal direction are optimal for research purposes.