|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
Making Daylighting Systems Work
E SOURCE, May 2005, Pages: 20
Daylighting systems can cut energy use, reduce peak demand, and create a more desirable indoor environment. Here are the tips trick and traps to making them work and avoiding mistakes.
Daylighting systems, which use natural lighting to supplement electric lighting, have the potential to cut energy use, reduce peak demand, and create a more desirable indoor environment, yet these systems often fail to live up to their potential. Two recent studies highlight some of the difficulties that arise when implementing daylighting systems and suggest possible solutions. The first, a study of six high-performance buildings by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, found shortcomings in the daylighting systems in all six buildings. The second, conducted by researchers at The Weidt Group who have studied more than 100 daylighting systems for a variety of building types, found that automatic switching or dimming control systems often don't provide the expected energy savings.
Yet some daylighting systems work well, cutting lighting energy use by 20 to 80 percent and offering intangible benefits as well. The key to getting more systems to live up to their potential lies in combining good design with commissioning, effectively coordinating the efforts of many building disciplines, and training building occupants in how to use the systems. This includes incorporating more-effective products that are either already available or soon to come to market.
Energy service providers (ESPs) are helping to bring the benefits of daylighting from theory to reality by participating in programs that encourage the installation of daylighting systems and educate designers and developers on how best to capture the benefits of daylighting. Just as ongoing education by government agencies, efficiency organizations, manufacturers, and ESPs were essential to winning acceptance for the use of occupancy sensors, we think similar efforts could do the same for daylighting.
|
|
|
|
