Effects of surface reflectance and lighting design strategies on energy consumption and visual comfort

Abstract

Globally, artificial lighting accounts for a considerable part of electrical energy consumption in buildings. Hence, there is a need to design appropriate lighting scenarios for buildings in a way to reduce energy while meeting visual comfort requirements. This research aims to investigate the effects of applying different design strategies on lighting energy use and visual comfort level. Surface finishing reflectance, type, number and mounting height of luminaires are variables in the study. Lighting design software DIALux evo 7.0 provides simulations of a real scale room according to different scenarios whose models were calibrated and validated using experimental field data. The findings indicate that the type of luminaire is the most decisive parameter in quantity and quality of light in an indoor environment. However, increasing the indoor surface reflectance plays a key role in improving energy efficiency and visual comfort. The results show the possibility of electrical energy savings up to 45% by increasing surface reflectance properties. Finally, this paper stresses that there is no single design solution to guarantee both low energy demand and high visual quality, therefore integrating different strategies based on the type of task and the occupant’s activities is highly recommended.

Ceiling and Wall Illumination, Utilance, and Power in Interior Lighting

“…The calculations of the parameters characterizing the quality of luminous environment in interiors were made using the DIALux 4.13 software. It is a tool verified [32] and used in research on interior lighting [30,31,33,34]. The Statistica package [35] was applied to calculate the lighting power and to analyze the results.…”

“…One of the scientific topics undertaken in this area is an attempt to determine a degree of impact of the parameters characterizing rooms, luminaires, and their layouts on the parameters characterizing the luminous environment and energy efficiency of interior lighting. The research in this area is carried out by Makaremi et al and the results are presented in two publications [30,31].…”

“…In their second paper [31], the impact of interior reflectances, luminaire type, number of luminaires, and luminaire suspension height on the levels of the same three photometric parameters and lighting power was assessed. In the same small room, the analyzed parameters were calculated for 135 lighting scenarios.…”

“…The gained results have high cognitive values, however, they refer to the narrowed cases, including the room size. It is also worth paying attention to the supposition presented in the conclusions that in the larger rooms, "the influence of different lighting strategies and surface properties on energy consumption and visual comfort might be significantly higher" [31].…”

Thermal design optimization and analysis on heating load of rural buildings in northern China

“…In addition, lighting technology plays an increasingly important role in reducing energy consumption. Makaremi et al [6] investigated the effects of applying different design strategies on lighting energy use and visual comfort level and found that there is no single design solution to guarantee both low energy demand and high visual quality, therefore integrating different strategies based on the type of task and the occupant's activities is highly recommended.…”