Metamodeling of the Energy Consumption of Buildings with Daylight Harvesting – Application of Artificial Neural Networks Sensitive to Orientation

Daylight harvesting is a well-known strategy to address building energy efficiency. However, few simplified tools can evaluate its dual impact on lighting and air conditioning energy consumption. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been used as metamodels to predict energy consumption with high precision, few input parameters and instant response. However, this approach still lacks the potential to estimate consumption when there is daylight harvesting, at the ambient level, where the effect of orientation can be noted. This study investigates this potential, in order to evaluate the applicability of ANNs as a tool to aid the architectonic design. The ANNs were approached as metamodels trained based on EnergyPlus thermo-energetic simulations. The network configuration focused on determining its simplest feasible form. The input parameters adopted as the main variables of the building envelope were as follows: orientation, window-to-wall ratio and visible transmission. The effects of the encoding of orientation as a network input parameter, the number of examples of each variable for network training and changing the parameters used for the training were evaluated. The networks predicted the individualized consumption according to the end use with errors below 5%, indicating their potential to be applied as a simplified tool to support the design process, considering the elementary variables of the building envelope. The discussion of results focused on guidelines and challenges to achieve this purpose when contemplating the broadening of the metamodel scope.

Daylight Harvesting Optimization for Commercial Buildings using AI Technique

As Energy consumption in buildings increases considerably from year to year due to the increase in human comfort needs and services . In addition to weather conditions, several factors influence the energy consumption for cooling buildings, such as the structure of the walls, the window-to-wall ratio and the orientation of the building. The energy consumption of buildings has been reported to represent a relatively large proportion of global energy consumption.

A Review on Zero Energy Building Using LED DC Luminaries and Daylight Harvesting Systems

The construction sector currently accounts for about a third of global energy consumption and a large part of this consumption is directly attributed to the design and construction of buildings. A wide range of measures has been adopted and implemented to actively promote better energy efficiency in buildings, including the ZEB (Zero Energy Building) concept, which is a realistic solution for reducing CO2 emissions.The zero-energy construction is discussed in this article. Energy resources have been described. NZEB's goal is not only to minimize the building's energy consumption by using passive design methods but also to design a building that reconciles energy needs with active techniques and renewable technologies.

Design of Smart Light Source based on Bi-color LED with Single Duty Cycle for Correlated Color Temperature Adjustment

Color-adjustable light sources facilitate both mood lighting and daylight harvesting. A single duty cycle can be used by a bi-color LED to adjust the correlated color temperature by associating it with the duty cycle of the pulse width modulation dimming signal of the cold and warm light sources. The one-to-one mapping relationship between the single duty cycle and the correlated color temperature is based on the color mixing theory of bi-color LEDs. A method to correlate the dimming signals for cold and warm LEDs is presented. The influence of the time characteristics of the two basic signals on dimming and color temperature adjustment is analyzed. The dimming system of bi-color LEDs is designed, and the method used to adjust the correlated color temperature with a single duty cycle is verified. The experiment showed that the correlated color temperature can be accurately adjusted by the proposed method.

A Review on Effective Use of Daylight Harvesting Using Intelligent Lighting Control Systems for Sustainable Office Buildings in India

Lighting is a fundamental requirement of our daily life. A lot of research and development is carried out in the field of daylight harvesting, which is the need of the hour. One of the most desirable attributes of daylight harvesting is that daylight is available universally and it is a very clean and cost-efficient form of energy. By using the various methods of daylight harvesting, it is possible to attain the global Sustainable Development Goals. Daylight harvesting in the most fundamental sense is the lighting strategy control of the artificial light in an interior space where daylight is also present so that the required illumination level is achieved. This way, a lot of energy can be saved. Recently, in addition to energy efficiency, other factors such as cost-efficiency, user requirements such as uniform illuminance, and different levels of illuminance at different points are being considered. To simulate the actual daylight contribution for an office building in urban Chennai, India before construction, ECO TECH software is used by providing the inputs such as building orientation, and reflectance’s values of the ceiling, wall, and floor to analyze the overall percentage of daylight penetration available versus the percentage prescribed in the Indian Green Building Council to obtain the credit points. Thus, the impact of architectural design on daylight harvesting and daylight predictive technology has experimented with office building in Chennai, India. This article will give an insight into the current trends in daylight harvesting technology and intends to provide a deeper understanding and spark a research interest in this widely potential field.