Abstract
Daylight availability is an important aspect that can potentially improve both the quality and the energy performance of buildings. However, it is not always straightforward easy to assure that an increase in the daylight availability leads to a reduction of electric energy use for artificial lighting. In this study, experimental measurements and numerical simulations were conducted to analyse the relation between the uses of artificial light and the daylighting availability for different groups of users who lived for one month each in a Zero Emission Building single-family house located in Trondheim, Norway. The use of electric lighting and the outdoor environment conditions (irradiance and illuminance on the horizontal plan) were recorded through advanced daylighting simulations, carried out with DIVA-for-Rhino, the daylighting availability during the periods of occupancy was then reconstructed, using as input data the outdoor environmental variable recorded during the experimental analysis. The results show that the coefficient of correlation between daylight availability and the artificial light is in general low and the use of artificial lighting seems to be largely independent from the availability of natural light.
Highlights
A homogenous daylight distribution has relevant benefits on the building’s energy saving, on the human health and on the occupants’ well-being [1]
Experimental measurements and numerical simulations were conducted to analyse the relation between the uses of artificial light and the daylighting availability for different groups of users who lived for one month each in a Zero Emission Building single-family house located in Trondheim, Norway
The results show that the coefficient of correlation between daylight availability and the artificial light is in general low and the use of artificial lighting seems to be largely independent from the availability of natural light
Summary
A homogenous daylight distribution has relevant benefits on the building’s energy saving, on the human health and on the occupants’ well-being [1]. Maximizing the sunlight penetrating in the interiors allows a reduction of electric energy use for artificial lighting [2]. It can be more challenging to find such a relationship in the context of residential building, probably because of the different user behavior in domestic setting [4]. The study presented in this paper originates from this challenge and aims at investigating how the users interact with electric lighting in a domestic environment, and more precisely at analyzing if the availability of natural light is correlated with the use of artificial lighting by real users
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