The Selection of Skylight Type for a Certain Building Using Evaluation Criteria and the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method

Abstract

The article is focused on the selection of the rational skylight from the examined alternatives using quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria, which are based on skylight performance and the multi-criteria decision-making method. A non-residential building, namely, a car service shop, was chosen for the research in order to offer good lighting in the large hall where the car repair work is performed every workday. Three alternatives of skylights with glazing material of spherical shape or dome were chosen for the study, skylight domes, longitudinal skylights, and tubular skylights, whose selection was based on the technical parameters of the product and the calculated amount of natural light entering through three different types of skylights. The skylight alternatives were evaluated according to seven criteria whose priority ranking and importance were determined by the survey questionnaire, while the theoretical and complex importance was determined using the Entropy Method. The most rational type of skylight was determined by the TOPSIS method. The analysis based on the offered method showed that skylight domes are a rational solution for the choice of skylight type for the tested building. The main criterion for choosing the roof daylighting system according to the survey was heat transfer coefficient, while skylight cost and installation cost were the criteria chosen by Entropy Method. In both cases, when alternative solutions were compared using the theoretical and complex importance of evaluation criteria, the most rational type of skylight selected using the TOPSIS method was the same alternative, namely the skylight dome.