A sample case of an advanced lighting system in a educational building
The paper describes a case history of an advanced lighting control system designed and realized for a couple of classrooms of the University of Rome. The control is organized by adopting a BUS system with "distributed intelligence" without a central and with smart actuators. The control turns on/off and regulates the lighting output of two classrooms, according to the actual presence of activities and to the actual availability of daylighting. A classroom was arranged with a light solution consisting in “on-off switching” control and not changing the luminaires, a second classroom was arranged with an advanced solution consisting in the replacement of the luminaires with a “dimming” control. A third class identical to the other two was taken as a reference to compare the results, in fact the architecture includes a supervisory system that allows a remote meter of the energetic values for the three classrooms. The paper shows the results of a year of monitoring campaign and compares the results with the energetic evaluation done by the a suggested tool based on the Standard EN15193 methodology.
Combined Electric Light and Daylight Systems Ecodesign
Natural daylight in interiors has two main characteristics: It is extremely pleasant to humans, and it is a free energy. The electric lighting system has to be able to combine the daylight contribution with consequent savings on the energy bill. The application of sensors, control systems, and information technologies can reduce significantly the need for human work. Controlling the electric lighting in such a way that the daylighting penetration matches the lighting level to the actual need allows saving on the energy costs and improving the human comfort and efficiency. This paper highlights that lighting controls work with effectiveness if the lighting system is well structured both in luminaire arrangement and control group subdivision, according with a comprehensive approach that considers working zones and daylight contributions. At this aim, this paper suggests an adaptive criterion and a rule of thumb to evaluate the daylight availability and its internal penetration since the preliminary design.
Energy saving of green buildings using natural daylight
This paper proposes the fundamental design and analysis approach on energy conservation of green buildings using a natural daylight strategy. The proposed energy-conservation scheme on power energy utilization of green buildings has been an important research topic in recent years due to the increasing price of international petroleum. Most of the power losses in typical buildings are from lights, motor loads, and air conditioners. This paper presents the design scheme on light management system to reduce power consumption of the power system in a research building by means of the utilization of natural daylight. Based on available illumination, the required supplementary artificial lighting is calculated and evaluated to meet the given lighting requirements.