Are automated daylight control systems working as they should?

10.26686/wgtn.17005555.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

James Thompson

Keyword(s):

Control Systems ◽

Energy Efficient ◽

Fossil Fuels ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Average Energy ◽

Working Environment ◽

Office Buildings ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Systems Research ◽

Occupant Satisfaction

<p>Lighting in office buildings can account for approximately 30% of electrical use. This provides an opportunity for energy efficient technologies to be implemented to reduce this load. Automated daylight control systems are part of a growing industry, based on complex electronics and careful placing of light sensors. In an economy that is accepting the need for energy reduction due to the realisation of limited fossil fuels, it is important to maintain and enhance energy efficient systems. Research highlighted that previous studies would either use a physical measuring approach or an occupant survey to understand how well automated daylight control systems are working, but never both. This thesis combined both of these approaches to quantify how much energy automated daylight control systems are saving while ensuring that occupant satisfaction and comfort is maintained. Four office buildings within Wellington city were therefore analysed to investigate the average energy saving from automated daylight control systems. Energy savings reported from other research studies ranged from 15% to 80%, with an average of 49%. The savings from the four buildings researched in this thesis average 20% savings. The surveys further indicated that all occupants within each of the buildings were satisfied with both natural and artificial lighting in their working environment. Glare was however highlighted as an issue.</p>

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The Performance Gap in Energy-Efficient Office Buildings: How the Occupants Can Help?

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13061480 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1480 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Qadeer Ali ◽

Muhammad Jamaluddin Thaheem ◽

Fahim Ullah ◽

Samad M. E. Sepasgozar

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficient ◽

Behavioral Interventions ◽

Energy Use ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Office Buildings ◽

Occupant Behavior ◽

Energy Usage ◽

Performance Gap ◽

Energy Efficient Buildings

Rising demand and limited production of electricity are instrumental in spreading the awareness of cautious energy use, leading to the global demand for energy-efficient buildings. This compels the construction industry to smartly design and effectively construct these buildings to ensure energy performance as per design expectations. However, the research tells a different tale: energy-efficient buildings have performance issues. Among several reasons behind the energy performance gap, occupant behavior is critical. The occupant behavior is dynamic and changes over time under formal and informal influences, but the traditional energy simulation programs assume it as static throughout the occupancy. Effective behavioral interventions can lead to optimized energy use. To find out the energy-saving potential based on simulated modified behavior, this study gathers primary building and occupant data from three energy-efficient office buildings in major cities of Pakistan and categorizes the occupants into high, medium, and low energy consumers. Additionally, agent-based modeling simulates the change in occupant behavior under the direct and indirect interventions over a three-year period. Finally, energy savings are quantified to highlight a 25.4% potential over the simulation period. This is a unique attempt at quantifying the potential impact on energy usage due to behavior modification which will help facility managers to plan and execute necessary interventions and software experts to develop effective tools to model the dynamic usage behavior. This will also help policymakers in devising subtle but effective behavior training strategies to reduce energy usage. Such behavioral retrofitting comes at a much lower cost than the physical or technological retrofit options to achieve the same purpose and this study establishes the foundation for it.

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Assessing window area and potential for electricity savings by using daylighting and hybrid ventilation in office buildings in southern Brazil

SIMULATION ◽

10.1177/0037549717706171 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 93 (11) ◽

pp. 935-949 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ricardo Forgiarini Rupp ◽

Enedir Ghisi

Keyword(s):

Air Conditioning ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Electricity Consumption ◽

Building Design ◽

Office Buildings ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Southern Brazil ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Hybrid Ventilation ◽

Window Area

The aim of this study is to develop a method to assess window area based on electricity consumption in office buildings in southern Brazil. The method may be used in the preliminary building design process in order to help choose an adequate window area to minimize its impact on energy consumption, depending on climate, building size, solar orientation, and mode of operation. The method also considered thermal comfort and daylighting performance. Four cases were investigated: Case 1, building operating with artificial lighting and air-conditioning; Case 2, considering integration of daylight and artificial light with air-conditioning; Case 3, building operating with hybrid ventilation and artificial lighting; and Case 4, considering integration of daylight and artificial light with hybrid ventilation. EnergyPlus and Daysim simulation programs were used to estimate the electricity consumption for each model. The integration of daylighting with artificial light (Case 2) generates more potential for energy savings (PES) than hybrid ventilation (Case 3). Case 4 showed PES ranging from 4.2% to 64.9%, allowing larger window areas with lower consumption, resulting in the highest PES.

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Energy Efficient Lighting in Plant Factories: Addressing Utilance

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11122570 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 2570

Author(s):

Jens Balasus ◽

Janis Blank ◽

Sebastian Babilon ◽

Tim Hegemann ◽

Tran Quoc Khanh

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficient ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Electrical Energy ◽

Dynamic Adaptation ◽

System Efficiency ◽

Additional Increase ◽

Crop Size ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Lighting Conditions ◽

Vertical Farming

Vertical farming is considered to play a crucial role in future food supply. Until today, the high amount of electrical energy required for artificial lighting has been problematic in this context. Various possibilities for increasing efficiency through adapted lighting conditions have been and are being investigated. However, comparably little attention is paid to increasing utilance, i.e., the amount of photons that can effectively be used by the plant. In this work, a novel targeted lighting strategy is therefore proposed that allows for a dynamic adaptation of the luminaires’ light distribution to match the effective crop size at each stage of plant growth in a fully-automated manner. It is shown that the resulting utilance can significantly be increased compared to standard full-coverage lighting. Moreover, it is found that the proposed strategy is likely to consume less than half of the electrical energy usually required for the latter. An additional increase in system efficiency can be prognosticated and the potential energy savings are estimated based on assumptions of future LED generations derived from literature.

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Lighting of Office Buildings New Approach to Natural and Artificial Lighting

10.15396/eres1997_110 ◽

1997 ◽

Keyword(s):

Office Buildings ◽

New Approach ◽

Artificial Lighting

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Lighting energy performance determination in office environments through implementation of EN 15193-1 for Turkey

Lighting Research and Technology ◽

10.1177/1477153520987420 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 147715352098742

Author(s):

FŞ Yilmaz

Keyword(s):

System Design ◽

Architectural Design ◽

Office Buildings ◽

Energy Requirements ◽

System Control ◽

Lighting System ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Design Alternatives ◽

Lighting Energy ◽

The Impact

Office buildings are building typologies where efficient and optimal use of lighting energy is crucial while providing comfortable visual environments. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of diverse architectural design alternatives on lighting energy requirements and lighting energy saving possibilities through a case study. In this study, a total of 3888 design alternatives are investigated in a comparative way in terms of daylighting system design alternatives, artificial lighting system design scenarios, artificial lighting system control types and shading system control options. Introducing the adaptation process of the EN 15193-1:2017 standard for Turkey’s specific climatic and geographical conditions and considering diverse lighting design scenarios, results of this parametric study aim to underline the significance of architectural design strategies in office buildings for the reduction of lighting energy requirements.

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Control Strategies for Daylight and Artificial Lighting in Office Buildings—A Bibliometrically Assisted Review

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14133852 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (13) ◽

pp. 3852

Author(s):

Daniel Plörer ◽

Sascha Hammes ◽

Martin Hauer ◽

Vincent van Karsbergen ◽

Rainer Pfluger

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Significant Proportion ◽

Decisive Role ◽

Future Trend ◽

Office Buildings ◽

Total Energy Consumption ◽

Integral Control ◽

Artificial Lighting

A significant proportion of the total energy consumption in office buildings is attributable to lighting. Enhancements in energy efficiency are currently achieved through strategies to reduce artificial lighting by intelligent daylight utilization. Control strategies in the field of daylighting and artificial lighting are mostly rule-based and focus either on comfort aspects or energy objectives. This paper aims to provide an overview of published scientific literature on enhanced control strategies, in which new control approaches are critically analysed regarding the fulfilment of energy efficiency targets and comfort criteria simultaneously. For this purpose, subject-specific review articles from the period between 2015 and 2020 and their research sources from as far back as 1978 are analysed. Results show clearly that building controls increasingly need to address multiple trades to achieve a maximum improvement in user comfort and energy efficiency. User acceptance can be highlighted as a decisive factor in achieving targeted system efficiencies, which are highly determined by the ability of active user interaction in the automatic control system. The future trend is moving towards decentralized control concepts including appropriate occupancy detection and space zoning. Simulation-based controls and learning systems are identified as appropriate methods that can play a decisive role in reducing building energy demand through integral control concepts.

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Energy and Greenhouse Gas Savings for LEED-Certified U.S. Office Buildings

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14030749 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 749

Author(s):

John H. Scofield ◽

Susannah Brodnitz ◽

Jakob Cornell ◽

Tian Liang ◽

Thomas Scofield

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Energy Use ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Electric Energy ◽

Building Energy ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Office Buildings ◽

Ghg Emission ◽

Site Energy ◽

New Construction

In this work, we present results from the largest study of measured, whole-building energy performance for commercial LEED-certified buildings, using 2016 energy use data that were obtained for 4417 commercial office buildings (114 million m2) from municipal energy benchmarking disclosures for 10 major U.S. cities. The properties included 551 buildings (31 million m2) that we identified as LEED-certified. Annual energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission were compared between LEED and non-LEED offices on a city-by-city basis and in aggregate. In aggregate, LEED offices demonstrated 11% site energy savings but only 7% savings in source energy and GHG emission. LEED offices saved 26% in non-electric energy but demonstrated no significant savings in electric energy. LEED savings in GHG and source energy increased to 10% when compared with newer, non-LEED offices. We also compared the measured energy savings for individual buildings with their projected savings, as determined by LEED points awarded for energy optimization. This analysis uncovered minimal correlation, i.e., an R2 < 1% for New Construction (NC) and Core and Shell (CS), and 8% for Existing Euildings (EB). The total measured site energy savings for LEED-NC and LEED-CS was 11% lower than projected while the total measured source energy savings for LEED-EB was 81% lower than projected. Only LEED offices certified at the gold level demonstrated statistically significant savings in source energy and greenhouse gas emissions as compared with non-LEED offices.

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Improving Sustainability of Housing in Ghana through Energy Efficient Climate Control Strategies

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.608-609.1698 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 608-609 ◽

pp. 1698-1704

Author(s):

Abdul Manan Dauda ◽

Hui Gao

Keyword(s):

Natural Ventilation ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Internal Heat ◽

Climate Control ◽

Housing Design ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Testing Procedures ◽

Mass Housing ◽

Design Changes

This paper aims at explaining testing procedures used to evaluate the potential of natural ventilation and daylighting applications to passive design of housing in Ghana. The objectives of research were to reduce energy costs and increase the sustainability of housing. From the results of these experiments actual and potential designs are illustrated and discussed. Mass housing results in multi-storey buildings which require substantial artificial lighting and ventilation. Also, with the increasing usage of glass for windows and doors in Ghana, even the shaded depths of buildings require additional daylight usually resulting in more energy consumption. By supplementing the internal lighting levels with daylight, reducing the internal heat load by shading windows to direct radiation and the utilization of natural ventilation over air conditioning where possible, significant energy savings are could be achieved. The research proposes mass housing design changes such as: delivering daylight above the suspended ceiling into the depths of the building by horizontal light pipes and natural ventilation, utilizing stack effect and wind siphonage, etc.

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