A review of the lighting performance in buildings through energy efficiency

As developing countries including Malaysia, are now moving towards sustainable development is in line with the Ninth Malaysia Plan, 9th MP, the development should be built to meet current and future needs for achieving sustainability of economic development, social and environmental responsibility for the prosperity without compromising the future generations‘ needs. Over the past five years, there has been a move away from constructing new buildings to refurbishing older and historic ones. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate the approach for the refurbishment of lighting as well as the existing energy efficiency policy and measures in Malaysian historical building for the energy efficiency improvement in the future. The paper takes the form of a review of literature. The main sources of this literature research are based on the articles, journals, and internet search. This study perhaps can add to the breadth of knowledge of lighting performance in the historical building from the perspective of energy efficiency. This study offers new and valuable insights to Malaysia in achieving optimum energy efficiency, saving in financial as well as reducing environmental impact.This paper has been presented at 2nd International Conference on Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICRSET’2014) March 21-22, 201

High-Performance Integrated Window and Façade Solutions for California

The researchers developed a new generation of high-performance façade systems and supporting design and management tools to support industry in meeting California’s greenhouse gas reduction targets, reduce energy consumption, and enable an adaptable response to minimize real-time demands on the electricity grid. The project resulted in five outcomes: (1) The research team developed an R-5, 1-inch thick, triplepane, insulating glass unit with a novel low-conductance aluminum frame. This technology can help significantly reduce residential cooling and heating loads, particularly during the evening. (2) The team developed a prototype of a windowintegrated local ventilation and energy recovery device that provides clean, dry fresh air through the façade with minimal energy requirements. (3) A daylight-redirecting louver system was prototyped to redirect sunlight 15–40 feet from the window. Simulations estimated that lighting energy use could be reduced by 35–54 percent without glare. (4) A control system incorporating physics-based equations and a mathematical solver was prototyped and field tested to demonstrate feasibility. Simulations estimated that total electricity costs could be reduced by 9-28 percent on sunny summer days through adaptive control of operable shading and daylighting components and the thermostat compared to state-of-the-art automatic façade controls in commercial building perimeter zones. (5) Supporting models and tools needed by industry for technology R&D and market transformation activities were validated. Attaining California’s clean energy goals require making a fundamental shift from today’s ad-hoc assemblages of static components to turnkey, intelligent, responsive, integrated building façade systems. These systems offered significant reductions in energy use, peak demand, and operating cost in California

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The effect of the sun and its path on thermal comfort and energy consumption in residential buildings in tropical climates constitutes serious concern for designers, building owners and users. Passive design approaches based on the sun and its path have been identified as a means of reducing energy consumption, as well as enhancing thermal comfort in buildings worldwide. Hence, a thorough understanding regarding the sun path is key to achieving this. This is necessary due to energy need, poor energy supply and distribution, energy poverty and over-dependence on electric generators for power supply in Nigeria. These challenges call for a change in the approach to energy related issues, especially in terms of buildings. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of building orientation, glazing and the use of shading devices on residential buildings in Nigeria. This is intended to provide data that will guide designers in the design of energy efficient residential buildings. The paper used EnergyPlus software to analyze a typical semi-detached residential building in Lokoja, Nigeria, using hourly weather data for a period of 10 years. Building performance was studied as well as possible improvement regarding different orientations, glazing types and shading devices. The simulation results showed reductions in energy consumption in response to changes in building orientation, types of glazing and the use of shading devices. The results indicate a 29.45% reduction in solar gains and 1.90% in annual operative temperature using natural ventilation only. This shows a huge potential to reduce energy consumption and improve people’s wellbeing using proper building orientation, glazing and appropriate shading devices on building envelope. The study concludes that for a significant reduction in total energy consumption by residential buildings, design should focus on multiple design options rather than concentrating on one or few building elements. Moreover, the investigation confirms that energy performance modelling can be used by building designers to take advantage of the sun and to evaluate various design options

Literature review - Energy saving potential of user-centered integrated lighting solutions

Measures for the reduction of electric energy loads for lighting have predominantly focussed on increasing the efficiency of lighting systems. This efficiency has now reached levels unthinkable a few decades ago. However, a focus on mere efficiency is physically limiting, and does not necessarily ensure that the anticipated energy savings actually materialize. There are technical and non-technical reasons because of which effective integration of lighting solutions and their controls, and thus a reduction in energy use, does not happen. This literature review aims to assess the energy saving potential of integrated daylight and electric lighting design and controls, especially with respect to user preferences and behaviour. It does so by collecting available scientific knowledge and experience on daylighting, electric lighting, and related control systems, as well as on effective strategies for their integration. Based on this knowledge, the review suggests design processes, innovative design strategies and design solutions which – if implemented appropriately – could improve user comfort, health, well-being and productivity, while saving energy as well as the operation and maintenance of lighting systems. The review highlights also regulatory, technical, and design challenges hindering energy savings. Potential energy savings are reported from the retrieved studies. However, these savings derived from separate studies are dependent on their specific contexts, which lowers the ecological validity of the findings. Studies on strategies based on behavioural interventions, like information, feedback, and social norms, did not report energy saving performance. This is an interesting conclusion, since the papers indicate high potentials that deserve further exploration. Quantifying potential savings is fundamental to fostering large scale adoption of user-driven strategies, since this would allow at least a rough estimation of returns for the investors. However, such quantification requires that studies are designed with an inter-disciplinary approach. The literature also shows that strategies, where there is more communication between façade and lighting designers, are more successful in integrated design, which calls for more communication between stakeholders in future building processes

Cost-effective analysis for selecting energy efficiency measures for refurbishment of residential buildings in Catalonia

© 2016. This version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This paper presents the results of a detailed method for developing cost-optimal studies for the energy refurbishment of residential buildings. The method takes part of an innovative approach: two-step evaluation considering thermal comfort, energy and economic criteria. The first step, the passive evaluation, was presented previously [1] and the results are used to develop the active evaluation, which is the focus of this paper. The active evaluation develops a cost-optimal analysis to compare a set of passive and active measures for the refurbishment of residential buildings. The cost-optimal methodology follows the European Directives and analysed the measures from the point of view of non-renewable primary energy consumption and the global costs over 30 years. The energy uses included in the study are heating, domestic hot water, cooling, lighting and appliances. In addition, the results have been represented following the energy labelling scale. The paper shows the results of a multi-family building built in the years 1990–2007 and located in Barcelona with two configurations: with natural ventilation and without natural ventilation. The method provides technical and economic information about the energy efficiency measures, with the objective to support the decision process.Postprint (author's final draft

The thermal effects of daylighting in an energy efficient home

Current trends in building design and construction emphasize the use of natural daylighting to illuminate a building\u27s interior. This study investigated the energy savings that could be obtained through the use of daylighting compared to additional heating and cooling loads attributed to the glazing required for daylighting. The study, through a combination of experimentation and computer model validation, aimed to determine energy saved from daylighting through illumination metering during a nine-month study period. Energy usage trends during this period were observed using circuit-level monitoring equipment. It was determined that, at select times of the year, energy used to account for additional cooling loads attributed to the glazing were 300% greater than the energy saved from employing daylighting --Abstract, page iii

Energy Saving Generated Through Automatic Lighting Control Systems According to the Estimation Method of the Standard EN 15193-1

The standard EN 15193-1:2017 "Energy performance of buildings - Energy requirements for lighting" introduced a detailed method to calculate the energy demand for lighting in buildings. The method contains a calculation of the daylight supply, which accounts for the impact of lighting control systems, both daylight-linked and occupancy-based. This paper presents the results of a study carried out to quantify, with respect to a manual on/off switch, the energy savings due to the four typologies of daylight-linked controls included in the standards, as well as their combination with an occupancy auto off control. To highlight the factors that affect the amount of saved electric energy, several spaces were considered, with different daylight availability, windows orientation and shading system, located in sites at different latitudes and climate conditions, and considering two types of building: offices and classrooms. A database of 2880 cases was built. As a second step of the study, for each site and type of control, the minimum window-to-wall ratio necessary to obtain a pre-defined saving was calculated. The results show for what combinations of variables two target savings of 20% and of 30% can be reached using the photodimming and occupancy controls contained in the standard

Dynamic Daylight Metrics for Electricity Savings in Offices: Window Size and Climate Smart Lighting Management

Daylight performance metrics provide a promising approach for the design and optimization of lighting strategies in buildings and their management. Smart controls for electric lighting can reduce power consumption and promote visual comfort using different control strategies, based on affordable technologies and low building impact. The aim of this research is to assess the energy efficiency of these smart controls by means of dynamic daylight performance metrics, to determine suitable solutions based on the geometry of the architecture and the weather conditions. The analysis considers different room dimensions, with variable window size and two mean surface reflectance values. DaySim 3.1 lighting software provides the simulations for the study, determining the necessary quantification of dynamic metrics to evaluate the usefulness of the proposed smart controls and their impact on energy efficiency. The validation of dynamic metrics is carried out by monitoring a mesh of illuminance-meters in test cells throughout one year. The results showed that, for most rooms more than 3.00 m deep, smart controls achieve worthwhile energy savings and a low payback period, regardless of weather conditions and for worst-case situations. It is also concluded that dimming systems provide a higher net present value and allow the use of smaller window size than other control solutions

Daylighting design for energy saving in a building global energy simulation context

A key factor to substantially reduce the energy consumption for electric lighting consists in a more widespread exploitation of daylight, associated with the use of the most energy efficient lighting technologies, including LEDs or electric lighting controls. At the same time daylight harvesting in indoor spaces can influence the global energy performance of a building also in terms of heating and cooling loads. For this reason, it’s always necessary to account for the balance between daylighting benefits and energy requirements. Furthermore the increasing awareness of the potential benefits of daylight has resulted in an increased need for objective information and data on the impact that different design solutions, in terms of architectural features, can have on the daylighting condition and energy demand of a space. Within this frame the research activity has been focusing on three main aspects: − Analyzing limits and potentials of the current daylighting design practice and proposing synthetic information and tools to be used by the design team during the earliest design stage to predict the daylight condition within a space. − Analyzing the effect of a proper daylighting design approach on energy requirements for electric lighting, associating with the use of efficient lighting technologies and control systems. − Assessing the influence of energy demand for electric lighting on the global energy performance. The methodology that was adopted relies on dynamic simulations carried out with Daysim and EnergyPlus used in synergy to perform a parametric study to assess the indoor daylighting conditions and the energy performance of rooms with different architectural features. Within the first phase the database of results of the lighting analysis was used to assess the sensitivity of new metrics which have been proposed by the scientific community as predictors of the dynamic variation of daylight. Furthermore it was analyzed how indoor daylight can be influenced by room’s architectural features. Than the energy demand for electric lighting for all simulated case studies have been analyzed so as to examine the influence of a proper daylighting design in presence of different lighting control systems. Finally results related to the amount of daylight available in a space were compared with annual energy demand for lighting, heating and cooling to highlight the influence of a proper daylighting design on the global energy performance

A Fuzzy Logic-Based Tuning Model in an Indoor Lighting System for Energy and Visual Comfort Management

This paper proposes a fuzzy logic-based tuning model (FLTM) for daylight-linked control of the lighting system in an office room. The proposed FLTM considered a new method of dimming levels of light-emitting diode (LED) luminaires updating process to improve the performance of the developed fuzzy logic controller (FLC) in terms of energy consumption and visual comfort metric and, at the same time, fully complies with the European Standard EN 12464-1. The artificial lighting system and daylight simulation were carried out using DIALux to model artificial lighting and daylight illuminance levels matrices. The proposed FLTM was developed and simulated using MATLAB and validated and compared with other controllers, including developed FLC and artificial neural network (ANN) based control. The simulation results showed that the proposed FLTM successfully improved the performance of developed FLC in terms of a fully satisfied visual comfort set-point. It also attained higher energy savings of 2% than ANN and achieved the closest to preset visual comfort compared with other controllers. Moreover, the proposed method consumes less computational effort, and it is easy to integrate with developed FLC and daylight-linked control of the lighting system