This research investigates the effects of daylighting in an existing elementary
school in College Station, Texas. The conclusions are generalizable to similar school
designs in hot and humid climates. This study focuses on the trends observed in the
building??s heating, cooling, and lighting energy consumption due to daylighting, and the
overall effect on total energy consumption. Skylights with 1% to 10% glazing surface to
floor area and clerestories from 2 ft to 8 ft glazing height were analyzed to formulate
balanced daylighting designs that could provide for decreased electricity and gas energy
consumption and increased daylight illuminance levels and energy cost savings.
Classroom and Library areas inside the case study school building were analyzed
using walk-throughs and daylight factor measurements to understand existing lighting
conditions and the potential for daylighting. Physical scale models of the study spaces
with and without daylighting alternatives were built for daylight factor and daylight
penetration analysis. Computer simulation models were created for the base case and all
proposed daylighting designs for building energy performance evaluation using the
DOE-2 building energy simulation program. Daylight factors from the actual spaces,
physical model measurements, and computer simulation outputs were studied for trendsin interior daylight illuminance levels. Annual energy consumption analyses were
performed using DOE-2 and involved heating, cooling, and electrical energy use
comparisons of all proposed designs with the base case. One design each from the
skylight and clerestory cases, and an overall design based upon the performance criteria
are proposed for the existing school building. The building energy analyses suggested
that a considerable reduction in artificial lighting and total electricity use could be
achieved through proper sizing of skylights and clerestories. Heating energy use stayed
almost constant in all cases. Considering all different trends in energy use, all the
proposed cases perform better than the base case in terms of total energy savings. The
spaces analyzed constituted 15% of total school area, and projected savings would be
much higher if daylighting could be applied to the entire school building.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2293 |
| Date | 29 August 2005 |
| Creators | Atre, Umesh Vinayak |
| Contributors | Clayton, Mark J. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 10680412 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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