Comparing Whole Building Energy Implications of Sidelighting Systems with Alternate Manual Blind Control Algorithms

Abstract

Currently, there is no manual blind control guideline used consistently throughout the energy modeling community. This paper identifies and compares five manual blind control algorithms with unique control patterns and reports blind occlusion, rate of change data, and annual building energy consumption. The blind control schemes detailed here represent five reasonable candidates for use in lighting and energy simulation based on difference driving factors. This study was performed on a medium-sized office building using EnergyPlus with the internal daylight harvesting engine. Results show that applying manual blind control algorithms affects the total annual consumption of the building by as much as 12.5% and 11.5% for interior and exterior blinds respectively, compared to the Always Retracted blinds algorithm. Peak demand was also compared showing blind algorithms affected zone load sizing by as much as 9.8%. The alternate algorithms were tested for their impact on American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Guideline 14 calibration metrics and all models were found to differ from the original calibrated baseline by more than the recommended ±15% for coefficient of variance of the mean square error (CVRMSE) and ±5% for normalized mean bias error (NMBE). The paper recommends that energy modelers use one OPEN ACCESSBuildings 2015, 5 468 or more manual blind control algorithms during design stages when making decisions about energy efficiency and other design alternatives.

Solar radiation entering through openings: Coupled assessment of luminous and thermal aspects

“…The first, Blindswitch-A, occludes more windows as solar penetration increases once exterior irradiance normal to the sun exceeds 120 W/m 2 . The second algorithm, Blindswitch-B, increases blind engagement once exterior vertical illuminance exceeds 20 klux [24][25][26] .…”

“…There are several different studies suggesting disparate control values of solar irradiance (11-325 W/m 2 ) regarding the control trigger for blind engagement [17] . Van Den Wymelenberg, after summarising some different threshold values, proposed a manual control algorithm related to exterior irradiance normal to the sun, called Blindswitch-A [24][25][26] .…”

Stochastic Characteristics of Manual Solar Shades and their Influence on Building Energy Performance

“…These research studies all reported a significant improvement of building energy performance while maintaining a comfortable indoor thermal condition. Christopher et al [14] compared the annual building energy consumption of five manual blind control algorithms. They found that the annual energy consumption differences ranged from 8.1% to 18.3% compared to buildings without manual shading devices.…”

Occupant monitoring, modelling, and simulation to improve office design and operation

“…In previous research (e.g. (Newsham, 1994;Reinhart et al, 2006;Shen and Tzempelikos, 2012;Tzempelikos and Shen, 2013;Nezamdoost et al, 2014;Dyke et al, 2015)), the effect of manual blind use on the predicted building energy use and thermal comfort has been studied. More recent developments such as the blind modelling efforts of Haldi and Robinson (2010) and the research by Reinhart and Wienold (2011) for a combined analysis of daylighting and thermal performance, demonstrate how different manual blind control strategies affect energy use, visual comfort, and view to the outdoors.…”