Energy Efficiency in Lighting for Historical Buildings: Case Study of the El Aman Caravanserai in Province of Bitlis, Turkey

Abstract

Historical buildings are bridges between the past and the present. Moreover, it is a mirror of the life of societies, which lived in other ages. Historic buildings need to be illuminated to provide better visual conditions. The demand for electricity is increasing day by day. Energy must be used efficiently to reduce the amount of energy being dissipated. Therefore, energy efficiency in the lighting for historical buildings is a topic of great importance. Various luminaires are used for interior and exterior lighting of historic buildings. However, new lighting technologies, such as light emitting diode (LED) luminaires, are many times more efficient than traditional technologies, such as incandescent luminaires. The use of new technologies can lead to significant reductions in net energy consumption and associated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Historic buildings can serve as powerful and highly visible demonstrations of energy-efficient lighting technologies. In this study, the cost and energy efficiency have been analyzed considering the investment costs and the energy consumption of LED luminaires instead of luminaires with incandescent, halogen and metal halide lamps using almost the same luminous flux in the example of the El Aman Caravanserai in Bitlis, Turkey. As a result, of the calculations, the annual energy consumption (9-066.6 kW·h) was reduced by 78.21 % compared to the conventional system (41-610 kW·h) installed with incandescent, halogen and metal halide lamps. Thus, the cost of using LED lighting system have been amortised in about 135 days. Later, lighting has been made with less energy consumption, and the energy has been used efficiently.