Simulation analysis of appropriate solutions to demands of light and heat in winter from the perspective of keeping health culture

Abstract

Daylight has a contradictory impact on human comfort, photobiological needs, and physical and mental health. Hence, “daylighting-thermal balance” has attracted attention in the construction of daylighting environment. Currently, the focus of daylighting-thermal balance is primarily on visual performance, comfort, and energy consumption, whereas the needs of health and pleasure have not been fully considered. Therefore, in this study, a new concept of daylighting-thermal balance was proposed from the perspectives of visual performance, visual comfort, thermal comfort, health, and pleasure. Considering a typical space in a cold region in winter as an example, a daylight regulation strategy for achieving daylighting-thermal balance was proposed, and its thermal and daylighting environment performances were explored by simulation. It was found that the photobiological demand-oriented daylight regulation strategy could not only effectively eliminate glare but also meet the photobiological demand. The thermal radiation of directional reflected sunlight outside the visual field could increase the surface temperature of a specific area on a wall facing the back of an occupant by 5.3–22.9 °C, and the ratio of the absolute value of the difference between the operative temperature and thermal neutral temperature before and after regulation (△Top-o/△Top-c) could reach 1.4–3.6. The results show that the daylight regulation strategy of daylighting-thermal balance can effectively improve the health performance and pleasure perception of the environment. The proposed strategy thus provides a theoretical basis and technical route for the construction of human-centered thermal and light environment in the future.