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Energy use and economic assessment of a multistory office building with daylighting of the interior core

Conference ·
OSTI ID:87405
; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

An interior core daylighting system for a typical 2,500 m daylit high-rise office building has been developed and evaluated. A 4.6 in (15 ft) deep, south-oriented light-guide system with a 31-m by 0.9-m (103-ft by 3-ft) cross section was used to provide daylight to a 12.2 m (40ft) deep interior core area. The distribution of daylight in the interior core from the light guide was determined. The whole-building energy performance was studied using DOE 2.1D. The core daylighting system was added to a 15-story perimeter-daylit office building that had either high-thermal-resistance (U = 0.85 W/[m{sup 2}{center_dot}K]) or low-emissivity (U = 2.6 W/[m{sup 2}{center_dot}K]) windows on the perimeter-daylit offices. Building configurations were simulated for Edmonton, Boston, and Fort Worth. Results show that the annual electric lighting load for a 12.2 m (40ft) deep interior core area adjacent to south-facing perimeter offices (i.e., 39% of the interior core) can be reduced between 44% and 66%, depending on the city. The lighting load reduction, coupled with the decrease in cooling loads, results in whole-building electrical consumption and peak demand reductions of up to 6% each, along with a corresponding decrease in chiller size. High-thermal-resistance windows can reduce heating loads by more than 30% while decreasing the necessary boiler size. Life-cycle costs were lowest for the building configuration with the light-guide system and low-emissivity windows installed The payback period for the light-guide system was estimated at less than 10 years for Boston and Fort Worth, while close to 20 years would be required in Edmonton.

OSTI ID:
87405
Report Number(s):
CONF-950104--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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