A new journal article by Siobhan Rockcastle and Alen Mahic was just published in Energy and Buildings. This paper introduces a digital simulation workflow that calculates annual eye-level illuminance and energy demand from daylight and electric lighting sources and used it to evaluate a luminaire-level lighting controls (LLLC) system. This workflow allows designers to compare the non-visual health potential and energy demand between automated lighting and shading control scenarios. Thanks to Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) for their ongoing support of research at the Institute for Health in the Built Environment and University of Oregon College of Design
The paper, titled, “Simulating the annual energy demand to meet non-visual health recommendations from a luminaire level lighting control system” introduces a novel simulation-based approach and the results from a case-study. The article is now available online.
Abstract:
This paper introduces a digital simulation workflow that calculates annual eye-level illuminance and energy demand from daylight and electric lighting sources for an array of view positions across 9-channels of spectral data. This Radiance-based workflow combines parts of the LARK spectral lighting code to offer better spectral resolution and accuracy when computing melanopic lx to evaluate the non-visual health potential for view positions within a digital model. The authors have implemented a series of annual climate-driven simulations and post-processed time-series of resulting data using the R statistical analysis software to compute Equivalent Melanopic Lux (EML) and energy demand (kWh) for an array of view positions and view directions in a digital model. This allows us to compute the energy demand of a given lighting and shading control scenario, which is optimized by hourly daylight availability to meet a recommended level of melanopic lx. This combined workflow uses digital models of an interior space to evaluate the annual potential of non-visual light exposure under different architectural, lighting, and shading control scenarios. This paper demonstrate the utility of this workflow by evaluating a luminaire-level lighting controls (LLLC) system to meet eye-level light exposure recommendations from the WELL Building Institute Feature L03 Circadian Lighting Design and compare the energy demand between targeted melanopic lux thresholds and shading control scenarios.