Evaluation of Energy Saving from Daylighting for an Educational Building in UK Using RELUX

Electric lighting takes a large portion of energy consumption in non-domestic buildings, the integration design of artificial lighting and daylighting is a good solution to energy saving and as well as contributing to visual comfort to the occupants. But the daylight related energy saving depends on various factors, the design of artificial lighting system and its daylight-linked control is one of the important factors. The aim of this paper is to assess a quantitative analysis of potential annual energy saving from daylighting in a real building using Daylighting Factor (DF) method. A case study of a newly constructed atrium educational building, Engineering and Science Learning Centre (ESLC) in the University of Nottingham, UK, is presented. Computational analysis using RELUX will be conducted to simulate the daylighting performance in selected rooms and analyses its theoretical potential annual energy savings with daylight-linked lighting control system. Additionally, a field survey will be conducted to verify the accuracy of software simulation and observe the real lighting control system in each room. The results shows that the potential annual energy saving from daylighting in all day-lit rooms in ESLC building can reach as high as 36.87% with the existing lighting control system.