A METHOD TO CALIBRATE PERCENTAGE DAYLIGHT FACTOR AT ENCLOSED INTERNAL CORRIDOR USING SCALED MODEL AND SIMULATION

Abstract

Enclosed corridors are long and they usually have no window provisions and require electric lighting to be switched on for 24 hours continuously to operate. Some corridor designs have openings for daylight at the ends, while others supplement daylight at the middle. The most part of these corridors are dark and consuming a lot of nonrenewable energy from artificial light. This paper explores how enclosed internal corridors do get the benefits of daylight depending on the corridor designs. It explores how percentage DF (Daylight Factor) less than 1%, especially in Malaysia where the skies are bright, can be beneficial and useful. The illumination required for corridors are minimal according to standards. Field work measurements were taken in selected enclosed corridor of a hostel building on typical overcast days and readings on %DF were then recorded. A scaled model of similar design was built to be experimented in the artificial sky to get a same set of readings; followed by simulation using Radiance. Results show that the readings calibrate well between field work compared to the scaled model in artificial sky and simulation with less than 10% differences. It was found that values of %DF of 0.5 and below calibrated well. Comparison were also carried out in terms of absolute illuminance and it was found that daylight illuminance less than 40 lux in corridors should not be underestimated
and were still useful even though lower than the usual standards for corridor illumination. This successful calibration will be used for further experimentation how enclosed corridors can be naturally lit by simulations.