Daylight Harvesting

Automatic lighting controls which ‘harvest’ available natural daylight by turning off artificial lighting can reduce lighting energy as well as cooling loads. In this example, the LEED Platinum certified Southface Energy Institute Eco Office (Images 1-6), artificial lighting is oriented parallel with the windows, allowing artificial lighting only as necessary to supplement available daylight. Tubular skylights in the building’s green roof and interior glazing provide daylight even to interior spaces such as the work room. Daylighting was a key energy efficiency measure contributing to the project’s projected 80 percent reduction in energy use. In its first year of operation, the Eco Office used even less energy than predicted, using only 21.8 kBtu/sf.

Our in-house daylight modeling capabilities allow for optimization of daylighting aperture and shading design.

 

 

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© Jonathan Hillyer