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Stanford CEE 215 - Daylighting Use Study

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Findings from a survey on the current use of daylight simulations in building designNRCC-47702Reinhart, C.; Fitz, A. 47702.pdfABSTRACTParticipants’ BackgroundProfessional GroupDo you consider daylighting aspects during building design?Simulation OutputGeneral Comments 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONhttp://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.caFindings from a survey on the current use of daylight simulations in building design NRCC-47702 Reinhart, C.; Fitz, A. A version of this paper is published in / Une version de ce document se trouve dans: Energy and Buildings, v. 38, no. 7, July 2006, pp. 824-835 doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2006.03.012FINDINGS FROM A SURVEY ON THE CURRENT USE OF DAYLIGHT SIMULATIONS IN BUILDING DESIGN Christoph Reinhart*, Annegret Fitz Institute for Research in Construction National Research Council Canada, Ottawa K1A 0R6, Canada ABSTRACT This paper presents findings from a web-based survey on the current use of daylight simulations in building design. The survey was administered from December 2nd 2003 to January 19th 2004. 185 individuals from 27 countries completed the survey. The majority of respondents worked in Canada (20%), the United States (20%), and Germany (12%). Most participants were recruited through building simulation mailing lists. Their self-reported professions ranged from energy consultants and engineers (38%) to architects and lighting designers (31%) as well as researchers (23%). They worked predominantly on large and small offices and schools. 91% of respondents included daylighting aspects in their building design. Those who did not consider daylighting blamed lack of information and unwillingness of clients to pay for this extra service. Among those participants who were considering daylighting 79% used computer simulations. This strong sample bias towards computer simulations reflects that many participants had been recruited through building simulation mailing lists. Participants named tools’ complexity and insufficient program documentation as weaknesses of existing programs. Self-training was the most common training method for daylight simulation tools. Tool usage was significantly higher during design development than during schematic design. Most survey participants used daylighting software for parameter studies and presented the results to their clients as a basis for design decisions. While daylight factor and interior illuminances were the most commonly calculated simulation outputs, shading type and control were the most common design aspects influenced by a daylighting analysis. The use of scale model measurements had rapidly fallen compared to a 1994 survey, whereas trust in the reliability of daylighting tools has risen. While participants named a total of 42 different daylight simulation programs that they routinely used, over 50% of program selections were for tools that use the RADIANCE simulation engine, revealing the program’s predominance within the daylight simulation community. keywords: daylight simulations, RADIANCE, online survey 1. INTRODUCTION In a rapidly changing world, design professionals rely more than ever on solid performance measures to support their design decisions. The role of computerized building design tools is to provide such information efficiently. Given the breadth of choices and concerns that a design team is confronted with, various design aspects constantly compete for the team’s attention. To remain competitive, design professionals must weigh the value of information gained through any one simulation tool against the invested time and financial resources, as well as against the value of comparable information that might be gained through the use of other or no tools. Because daylighting is a declared design feature of * corresponding author: email [email protected]; Tel. +1(613)993-9703 1virtually all “sustainable/green” buildings, and because it is difficult to evaluate its quality and quantity in a space through simple rules of thumb, daylighting software should have a high rate of acceptance and adoption within the market. This is the underlying notion for the development of daylight simulation tools. The research described in this paper was motivated by the authors’ observation that despite the availability of simplified and detailed daylight simulation methods, none of these tools has yet penetrated the building design market to any great degree. The objective of this study therefore was to identify weaknesses of existing daylighting design software packages, better understand design practitioners’ needs, and accordingly provide guidance to software developers. The paper presents a review of previous surveys on the use of building simulation software followed by the findings of a web-based survey that particularly concentrated on daylight simulation software. This work was carried out within the context of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) research project ‘Task 31: Daylighting Buildings in the 21st Century’1. The project’s overall objective was to foster the use of daylight in commercial buildings through a better understanding of occupant needs’, more integrated lighting and shading controls, and improved daylighting design software. This study contributed to the latter work package. 2. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS SURVEYS A number of surveys have been carried out in the past that were concerned with the use of building simulation tools during building design as well as barriers that prevent their wider usage. In a 1985 survey of Japanese engineering firms Matsuo summarized some key requirements for building energy simulation tools to become widely used2. These requirements were moderate software costs, detailed user manuals, and default values for non standard data inputs. Matsuo provided no information of how many engineering firms were involved in the survey and how it was administered2. In the same year Mason presented an overview on the usage of building simulation software in Australia and New Zealand3. The paper stated that the main barriers against a wider usage of such tools in these countries were the complexity of existing tools, missing front ends and inflexible simulation outputs. At that time the Australian and New Zealand building service community lacked the required computing skills, and trust in existing programs was low due to insufficient validation data. Mason did not report what methodology was used to compile this list


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Stanford CEE 215 - Daylighting Use Study

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