Daylight optimization of buildings and application of advanced daylighting systems in Central Mexico

The intensive use of daylight in buildings is beneficial at many levels: it provides sufficient levels of illumination to perform working activities throughout the day and it reduces the use of artificial light, which in turn leads to lower electricity consumption [1-3]. The spectral composition of daylight often leads to higher visual comfort in humans, compared to electric lighting. There are also illuminance and spectrally-dependent light effects on the human circadian system, which regulate hormonal rhythms, alertness and (visual) performance across 24 hours [4-6]. The main objective of this work was to assess luminous performance in office buildings and to test optimizations by virtually applying different daylighting strategies by computer simulations.We first assessed the daylight distribution in two different office rooms, set-up as test modules on the EPFL campus in Lausanne (46° 32'N, 6° 39'E). One of these test modules is equipped with a standard double-glazing; the second one comprises anidolic daylighting systems [7], which convey diffuse daylight and sunlight deeper in the room, and reduce glare risk. In both rooms, we also assessed vertical spectral irradiance in the visible range, which gave us additional information with respect to photo biological properties of the available daylight. We then measured the real daylighting situation in an office room located in the city of Zacatecas, Mexico (22°47'N 102°34'W), which is equipped with a standard double-glazing window. In a next step we tested, whether the daylight distribution for this room could be improved by virtually applying different complex fenestration systems (such as prismatic panels and laser cut panels) by using computer simulations. The results of these simulations showed higher indoor luminous performance with the two advanced daylighting systems. This new method may contribute to an improved and tailored design of daylight availability in real buildings at different geographical locations.

Annual Performance Assessment of Complex Fenestration Systems in Sunny Climates Using Advanced Computer Simulations

Chantal Basurto Dávila, Jérôme Henri Kämpf, Jean-Louis Scartezzini

Complex Fenestration Systems (CFS) are advanced daylighting systems that are placed on the upper part of a window to improve the indoor daylight distribution within rooms. Due to their double function of daylight redirection and solar protection, they are considered as a solution to mitigate the unfavorable effects due to the admission of direct sunlight in buildings located in prevailing sunny climates (risk of glare and overheating). Accordingly, an adequate assessment of their performance should include an annual evaluation of the main aspects relevant to the use of daylight in such regions: the indoor illuminance distribution, thermal comfort, and visual comfort of the occupant’s. Such evaluation is possible with the use of computer simulations combined with the bi-directional scattering distribution function (BSDF) data of these systems. This study explores the use of available methods to assess the visible and thermal annual performance of five different CFS using advanced computer simulations. To achieve results, an on-site daylight monitoring was carried out in a building located in a predominantly sunny climate location, and the collected data was used to create and calibrate a virtual model used to carry-out the simulations. The results can be employed to select the CFS, which improves visual and thermal interior environment for the occupants.

2015

Optimisation of Urban Form by the Evaluation of the Solar Potential

Marylène Montavon

What will the cities of tomorrow look like? This is a crucial question because in the four and a half billion years of its existence, the Earth has never been so threatened, as it is today. Since 2008 half of the world's population has lived in towns – more than 70% in rich nations. Three quarters of CO2 emissions are produced in towns, 75% of the world's energy is consumed in towns. The battle for our climate, for the continuation of our species and all other life, will be largely waged in cities. Will it be possible to create the ideal ecological town? The objective of this study is to compare actual and theoretical urban forms in order to explore the diverse effects of daylighting and solar potential on densely built-up sites. Indeed, the search for ideal solar orientations has been a persistent problem from the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th. Even today, for all our scientific knowledge and empirical experience of solar energy, making the correct choice has still not crossed the boundary from an enigmatic, tricky art into the field of an exact science. As a first step, six existing urban sites in Switzerland and Brazil, as well as two projects in the United Kingdom, a few generic models and a utopian city, were modelled and analyzed. The goal was not merely the construction of new, exemplary districts but also the transformation of existing towns. The findings have been used to assess the potential of façades and roofs located in urban areas for active and passive solar heating, photovoltaic electricity generation and daylighting. The results obtained from these different case studies revealed large variations of the potential for solar energy collection on the buildings' façades and roofs. Ideally, these investigations are expected to help architects and town planners understand how to optimise solar collection on buildings design. In addition, a study was made of the Contemporary City of Three Million Inhabitants created by Le Corbusier. According to the latter, the Contemporary City could increase the urban capacity and at the same time improve the urban environment and the efficiency of the city. Therefore the present study extracted the solar potential of this utopian city in order to assess Le Corbusier's propositions. Since 1922, Le Corbusier's studies have influenced architects and town-planners in their choice of orientations and urban forms: it was therefore crucial to discover if this reliance on Le Corbusier was justified. Solar irradiation and illuminance values obtained through numerical simulations form the core part of the method. The method adopted for the entire set of computer simulations consisted in modelling — via a computer-aided drawing piece of software, namely AutoCAD — the digital model of each building or group of buildings prior to exporting them to an urban performance analysis software (PPF/RADIANCE software package). Spatial distributions of solar irradiation and daylight fluxes over the overall building façades and roofs were calculated using ray-tracing simulation techniques to determine the appropriate placement of different solar technologies (passive and active solar, photovoltaic and daylighting). Performance indicators were used to assess the solar utilisation potential of the urban sites (e.g. statistics of sky view factors and daylight factors) in order to determine the optimal solar strategies for a given urban context. In addition, various works and sun-related recommendations that have appeared mainly since the end of the nineteenth century, together with the various scientific models and software tools pertaining to this topic, are presented in this study.

EPFL2010

Optimisation of Urban Form by the Evaluation of the Solar Potential

Marylène Montavon

EPFL2010