Daylight analysis of a typical low rise office building for different climate zones of India

Abstract

The efforts of man to integrate daylight in the interior of any building had its start during the ancient civilizations. Despite of reducing the energy consumption due to artificial lighting to a considerable extend, daylight integration has positive effects on the health and productivity of its inhabitants. The building design and its climate are the major factors that determine the amount of daylight penetrating in to the interior of the building. This paper aims to analyze the daylight availability in the interior of a building, with a fixed design and orientation, for different climate zones of India. The building is modeled in Ecotect daylighting tool and simulated using Radiance Beta V2.0. Illuminance is considered as the performance indicator in this study. The percentage of daylit area for all the climate zones of India for the equinox day is presented in this paper. Comparison of optimally daylit area, under illuminated, over illuminated and glare perceived area is also presented for the cities of different climate zones.