Evaluation of Climate-Based Daylight Performance in Tropical Office Buildings- A Case Study

The utilization of daylight can significantly affect building performance, energy efficiency, productivity, as well as occupants’ comfort and satisfaction in buildings. This paper aims to assess daylight performance for tropical office buildings in a parametric approach. Thus, four passive design categories are investigated, namely interior surface reflectance, glazing visual transmittance, light shelves, and shading control. We first evaluated the daylight performance metrics, namely daylight autonomy, continuous daylight autonomy, and daylight autonomy max. Subsequently, a parametric approach toward assessing daylight performance is presented. The approach is exemplified using the case study of two selected offices in CREATE Tower, an air-conditioned office building in Singapore. The simulation results were generated based on above-mentioned four categories and then compared. This study contributed to the assessment of the daylight performance and prediction of the consequences of retrofitting alternatives toward fostering the utilization of daylight in existing buildings in the tropics. Furthermore, the outcomes of this effort are expected to serve as a solid basis towards a simulation-based daylight responsive building systems control demonstration in lighting and shading domain.