A solar fiber optic lighting system, SP3 from the Swedish company Parans Solar Lighting AB, has been installed in a study area/corridor test site. A collector is tracking the sun during daytime, focusing the direct sun irradiance via Fresnel lenses into optical fibers, which guide the solar light into the building. The illumination properties of the system have been characterized. The energy saving due to reduced need of artificial lighting have been calculated and methods for balancing the artificial lights in the test site have been evaluated. The illumination at the test site using solar light was at least as high as when using the artificial lights and even higher at very clear days. The luminous flux output (500 lm) was somewhat lower than specified by the manufacturer (550 lm) at 100 000 lx direct sun illuminance. The output at 130 000 lx was high 767±33 lm the sunlight coupling efficiency 23 %. However, for a 20 m SP3 system the luminous flux output (400 lm) at 100 000 lx was higher than specified (350 lm). The SP3 system of Parans provides high quality solar light. It has a fuller spectrum close to the spectrum of the sun compared to the fluorescent lights at the test site. The correlated color temperature of the system was 5800±300 K and the color rendering index 84.9±0.5. The lighting energy saved due to decreased need for artificial light was estimated to 19 % in Uppsala which has 1790 annual sun hours. The savings in Italy, which has 3400 sun hours, is 46 %. Additional saving, especially in warmer countries can be obtained due to decreased need for cooling in the building as the solar luminaires provide negligible heat to the indoor air. Economical saving could also be realized by improved well-being of the occupants spending time under the solar luminaires. Three ways of balancing the artificial light due to sunshine fluctuations have been investigated. The global horizontal irradiance could not be used as a control signal for balancing the artificial lights but a pyranometer attached to the SP3 sun tracking collector was usable. Also the signal from an indoor luxmeter sensor could be used for balancing the light. However the signal from the light sensor which makes the SP3 collector to track the sun is probably the most cost effective method as it would serve two purposes; tracking the sun and balancing the artificial lights.

In this thesis we examine the feasibility of developing a white light source capable of producing colors between 2500 and 7500 Kelvin on the black-body radiator spectrum by simply adjusting amperage to a blue and ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diode (LED). The purpose of a lighting source of this nature is to better replicate daylight inside a building at a given time of day. This study analyzes the proposed light source using a 385 nm UV LED, a 457 nm blue LED, a 479 nm blue LED, a 562 nm peak cerium doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Ce) phosphor, and a 647 nm peak selenium doped zinc sulfide (ZnS:Se) phosphor. Our approach to this study initially examined optical performance of yellow-emitting phosphor (YAG:Ce) positioned at specific distances above a blue LED using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a substrate. An understanding of how phosphor concentration within the PDMS, the thickness of the PDMS, and how substrate distance from the LED die affected light intensity and color values (determined quantitatively by utilizing the 1931 CIE 2° Standard Observer) enabled equations to be developed for various lens designs to efficiently produce white light using a 457 nm peak wavelength LED. The combination of two luminescent sources (457 nm LED and YAG:Ce) provided a linear trend on the 1931 CIE diagram which required a red illumination source to obtain Kelvin values from 2500 to 7500. Red-emitting phosphor (ZnS:Se), selected to compliment the system, was dispersed with YAG:Ce throughout PDMS where they were stimulated with a blue LED thereby enabling all desired Kelvin values with differing concentration lenses. Stimulating ZnS:Se with the addition of a UV LED did not provide the ability to change the color value of the set up to the degree required. Many other factors resulted in the decision to remove the UV LED contribution from the multi-Kelvin light source design. The final design incorporated a combination of ZnS:Se and YAG:Ce stimulated with a blue LED to obtain a 2500 Kelvin value. A separate blue LED provides the means to obtain 7500 Kelvin light and the other color values in between, with a linear approximation, by adjusting the amperages of both LEDs. In addition to investigating the feasibility of obtaining the Kelvin values from 2500 to 7500, this thesis also examined the problem of ZnS:Se’s inability to cure in PDMS and a method to create a lens shape to provide equal color values at all points above a phosphor converted LED source. ZnS:Se was found to be curable in PDMS if first coated with a low viscosity silicon oil prior to dispersion within PDMS. The lens configuration consists of phosphors equally distributed in PDMS and cured in the shape of a Gaussian distribution unique to multiple factors in LED-based white light design.