Development and Validation of Design Tools for Estimating the Indoor Daylight Illuminance under the 15 CIE Standard Skies

Description

Daylighting is an effective approach to allow a more flexible building facade design strategy, and to enhance a more energy-efficient, sustainable and greener building development. The prediction of the internal daylight levels is a key stage in daylighting analysis. The daylight factor approach (DFA) is not flexible enough to predict the dynamic variations as the sun position and sky condition change. The interior daylight illuminance is influenced by the luminances and patterns of the sky in the direction of view of the window at any given time. Recently, the CIE has adopted a range of 15 standard skies covering the whole probable spectrum of skies in the world. Also, the investigators have recently developed a simplified numerical procedure which considers the sky illuminance levels and luminance distributions to estimate the indoor daylight under unobstructed non-overcast skies. The proposed project extends this method to consider large external obstructions for simple design tools development using computer simulation techniques and field measurement data.