A Review on Effective Use of Daylight Harvesting Using Intelligent Lighting Control Systems for Sustainable Office Buildings in India

Abstract

Lighting is a fundamental requirement of our daily life. A lot of research and development is carried out in the field of daylight harvesting, which is the need of the hour. One of the most desirable attributes of daylight harvesting is that daylight is available universally and it is a very clean and cost-efficient form of energy. By using the various methods of daylight harvesting, it is possible to attain the global Sustainable Development Goals. Daylight harvesting in the most fundamental sense is the lighting strategy control of the artificial light in an interior space where daylight is also present so that the required illumination level is achieved. This way, a lot of energy can be saved. Recently, in addition to energy efficiency, other factors such as cost-efficiency, user requirements such as uniform illuminance, and different levels of illuminance at different points are being considered. To simulate the actual daylight contribution for an office building in urban Chennai, India before construction, ECO TECH software is used by providing the inputs such as building orientation, and reflectance’s values of the ceiling, wall, and floor to analyze the overall percentage of daylight penetration available versus the percentage prescribed in the Indian Green Building Council to obtain the credit points. Thus, the impact of architectural design on daylight harvesting and daylight predictive technology has experimented with office building in Chennai, India. This article will give an insight into the current trends in daylight harvesting technology and intends to provide a deeper understanding and spark a research interest in this widely potential field.